Entertaining the Guests
by FanOfGames16
Summary: One RWBY universe was destroyed due to the actions of dozens of authors. As a result, one was stuck with fixing that destroyed universe. That's not the only thing he had to do though. The surviving characters were stuck with him until his job was done, and he needed to keep them amused somehow. It couldn't hurt to show them alternate universes like everyone else was doing, right?
1. Reactions and Aftermath

"Today's challenge: Reactions! That's right! Take your favorite characters and have them react to stuff! It could be anything! Canon, non-canon, their shows, other shows! Book format or movie format! Do anything you want and record it all!"

FG16 saw that his fellow authors grew interested at Mod's announcement. A lot of them already had ideas in mind, their declarations filling the air with various sources of animes/mangas, games, tv shows, cartoons, movies, and books.

Mod continued. "Now for the bonus challenge! Of course, this is optional, just like today's challenge. Anyways, the chosen category is RWBY! Have the reactors be from the RWBY category or have your reactors react to RWBY, the show or fanfiction!"

Cheers echoed through the room from the authors that were fans of RWBY. Those authors already had their ideas flowing out of their mouths and they were being built upon by the second. FG16 sweatdropped when he heard some of the authors planning on kidnapping the crew and creating time-stopping avatars to inhabit. He had to give this to them though. They seemed dedicated.

"Well, that's all for today's challenge! Hope you all get plenty of views, reviews, favorites, and follows. Have a nice day!" With that, Mod left. As did the authors who were taking up the challenge. A few stayed behind, some sharing their ideas with other authors who were planning on using the same source and/or characters.

"Should I include or exclude Naruto from the reactors?"

"Oh man, I can't wait to see everyone's reactions to Deku!"

"Gotta burn Death Battle on DVDs! And maybe make some note about Earth going to shit!"

"Percy Jackson books or Percy Jackson fanfiction?"

"Harry Potter... what's a good crossover with that?"

"A girl Tony Stark. I wonder how that will go down?"

"RWBY reactions huh? They definitely need to react to Jaune."

"You thinking of making Jaune the main focus?"

"There's so many good Jaune stuff! What am I going to pick?"

"Oh do I got plans for you Jaune. Heh heh heh..."

FG16 contemplated on the ideas he heard. They all sound interesting enough. The Death Battle and RWBY ones catching his attention the most. He could picture certain characters reacting to themselves in Death Battle, and how meta those reactions may become. As for RWBY, there was a lot of focus on Jaune.

"Maybe Ruby would be a better?"

And one for Ruby. Good for her, but the attention was more on Jaune. It was a surprise, and not at the same time. Despite the fact that Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were the main characters, his fellow authors maining in the RWBY category for some reason decided that the blond wannabe knight would be the one that would be the central character. FG16 couldn't be sure of the reason why, but he could think of one reason, and that was one author in particular. That author more often than not had Jaune as the main character and his stories were the most popular and talked about in the entire RWBY fandom. He might have been an influence on everyone's opinion of Jaune.

"I should get started on that professor story sometime," he planned while thinking of that author. He wondered if any of them were thinking of having the RWBY cast react to that author's stories. When he reached his pure white void of a domain, he decided that it couldn't hurt to check. He waved a hand and narrowed down his searches in his head. More than a dozen portals manifested. "This many, already?" FG16 gave an impressed whistle. He looked through one of the portals and, as expected, saw Team RWBY. They were in their dorm room, and they looked ready for movie night(?). Ruby put a disc into the DVD player and on screen...

"This should be entertaining," FG16 smirked. He looked to another portal and saw Team RWBY and Team JNPR in a living room with an author. FG16 chuckled when he realized that that author actually kidnapped the cast. He watched as Yang grabbed a book out of Ren's hand. FG16 read the title. "Ah, a crossover." That might be fun to check in on.

He viewed another portal. This time, it looked like everyone was there. The main cast, supporting characters, heroes, villains. He chuckled at Ozpin and Salem's reactions. It looked like the author was there too. It seemed like he was explaining how Jaune was the center of their universe. FG16 had a feeling that would be a reoccurring theme. Soon, they got to the reactions. The author was apparently showing alternate universes. As he watched them react to several universes, FG16 couldn't help but note, "It looks like they're using the universes with established stories and characters and replacing those characters with RWBY ones." He found that a little cheap, but admitted the universes were fun to watch and the reactions from the cast did amuse him.

He looked to another viewing and it seemed like a decent amount of the cast were in a movie theater. As to what they were watching, "Huh, same premise as the other one." Established universes, but with RWBY characters. "Is this also going to be a reoccurring thing?" He looked to another and found RWBY and NPR in a giant library watching books that turned into movies with a handy device. He watched along with them, smiling when newcomers came like Velvet and Qrow. They too were watching universes where the RWBY characters replaced the actual cast. Don't get him wrong, he liked the reactions. Very much so. It was a small part of FG16's brain that wished that the cast was watching more original stuff. The basic idea could be one that was done before, such as Jaune with a different partner or Jaune with terrible parents, but the story around built on those ideas could be original. That way, the viewing experience could be something new for both the cast and watchers like him.

Well, he shouldn't complain. It's not like he had any authorities over those authors. They could do what they like. FG16 would enjoy the reactions nonetheless.

As he moved on to another portal, he noticed a particular detail. The number of portals seemed to double, triple. The amount kept growing from there. His eyes widened as his domain now housed over a hundred portals. "Oh geez. You guys sure are enthusiastic." He snapped his fingers. As if a switch was flipped, all of the portals vanished in an instant. "Well, that was fun. I need a drink."

Mere minutes later and a water bottle thrown into the recycling bin, FG16 made his way back to his domain. Well, he would if he wasn't stopped.

"Hey, you!" He turned his head to see Mod coming his way.

FG16 raised an eyebrow. What did he want with a random author like him? "Yeah?"

"Were you there when I read off the challenge of the day?"

"Yeah..."

"Great!" Mod smiled mischievously. "I got a mission for you."

FG16 cupped his chin, confused. "Mission?"

"You see, a lot of authors took on today's challenge and bonus challenge. Are you aware of that?" FG16 nodded. "Good. Because of that, RWBY characters were taken from dozens of universes and those universes are now in a state of pause. As in, time has stopped for them. You following me?" A nod. "Normally, this would be okay. However, because of the sheer number of authors taking the challenges, this had a... side effect on one RWBY universe in particular."

"It got destroyed," FG16 deadpanned.

"Yep." The Mod nodded in a sage-like manner while the author sighed. So much space-time and reality were being altered due to his fellow authors. He should've known a destroyed universe would be a result.

"I feel sorry for the poor sap who has to repair that universe."

"Yes, I feel sorry for you too."

"..."

"..."

"... What did you say?"

The Mod gave him a friendly smile and a pat on the shoulder. "Have fun." He walked away, carefree.

FG16 stared at his retreating form before letting out a tired breath. "Yeah... I'll certainly have fun." Universal repairs were so troublesome. Not only did he need to create reality again, but every universal repair mission had a secondary objective;

Entertain the guests.

Important people from destroyed universes were rescued and placed here in The Network, waiting until repairs were done. The RWBY cast were probably already in his domain, freaking out. Now he had to confront them, explain the situation, and get to work while entertaining them. How was he supposed to do that?

As he walked back to his domain, he overheard authors talking about today's challenge. Seemed like they were ready to start their reaction stories as well. He'll have to see them later. From what he viewed so far, he found the reactions amusing.

"Wait a minute," FG16 stopped. "Reactions."

He giggled.

Then he chuckled.

Finally, he laughed.

"Oh, this should be entertaining."

* * *

The room was divided into two groups, but Ozpin and Salem were in the middle, merely staring at one another. Well, glaring was a more appropriate term.

His arch nemesis always made him cautious. Now that she was here in the same room as him and his students, he was on edge. He was ready to take action if Salem even slightly twitched. Glynda Goodwitch, Qrow Branwen, James Ironwood, and Winter Schnee were prepared to back him. That Penny girl as well. Maybe Raven too if he was lucky. What was the sister Branwen doing here anyway? A question for later.

The elder Schnee had no idea who the woman was, but her general seemed to be treating her as a threat, so she had to be wary of her as well. As much as she could anyway. No one had any of their weapons when they appeared in this white void. That didn't seem to bother Ozpin, Ironwood, Goodwitch, and Qrow though. Speaking of, that drunkard lost any semblance of his usual unpleasant attitude and looked deadly serious. As intolerant as he was, that out-of-character face was all Winter needed to know just how serious the situation was. She had to be ready to assist, especially since the criminal Roman Torchwick and White Fang's Adam Taurus was on the other side. She wasn't sure who the woman in red was, but treated her with caution all the same.

Cinder Fall kept glancing between Salem and Ozpin's group, tense. She tried to feel for her Fall Maiden powers, but found that they were gone! She couldn't even use her Semblance! She was limited, but waited for her mistress to act. Cinder suspected that if she couldn't use her powers, no one else could as well. No doubt their opponents found that fact out too. In that case, Ozpin's group outnumbered Salem's. They had to play this carefully.

Roman and Neopolitan, on the other hand, were ready to bail. They didn't know how or where to escape, but the tension in the air was killer between the pale white Grimm-looking lady and the Headmaster of Beacon. That was not their sole reason for wanting to leave. The other was Cinder, their "employer." They had an idea of how strong she was. At the moment, they saw a single bead of sweat run down Cinder's face, one she didn't notice. Cinder was nervous. As much as they hated her, if she was nervous, then Roman and Neo had the right to be scared and try to get the heck out of dodge.

That sentiment was not shared by Adam. The bull faunus was glaring at Blake and the Schnees. Honestly, he wanted to charge at them. Demand answers from Blake and cut down the humans here, the Schnees first. Two problems though. Firstly, he was weaponless. That would be fine normally. He could work using hand-to-hand combat. The second problem was the Grimm woman and the Headmaster. Everyone, himself included, was fixated on the obvious conflict the two shared. Their combined presences commanded their attention and would not allow anyone else to act until they did. Fine. Adam would just let it happen. He get Blake and the soon-to-be former Schnees eventually. As well as that blondes standing close to Blake. How dare they!

The cat faunus was fearfully waiting for something to happen. Her attention was on Ozpin and the suspicious looking woman. Whatever was going on between the two looked too important to miss. However, her main priority was Adam. When she noticed he was here, she was sure she had a panic attack. She knew that Adam would come after her any second. She kept an eye on him, waiting to run away. To where, she didn't know. It was better than the alternative of letting him catch her. Yang and Sun calmed her down, but her worries were far from eased.

Speaking of, Yang Xiao Long and Sun Wukong were sharing a similar mindset. Based on Blake's reaction to that bull faunus, they could tell he was bad news. Yang had a hand on Blake's shoulder and Sun stood in front of his crush. They'd protect her from him. Sun had his eyes on him, but his ears trained on middle people. They were likely going to share some words. Yang, however, had her attention fixated on Raven. Her birth mother was here! After years of searching, she finally found her. Nothing can stop her now. As soon as Ozpin finished, Yang was going to confront Raven. She had words to say. And perhaps a punch to throw.

Nora Valkyrie herself wanted to throw her own punch. Her instincts screamed at her to attack the weird lady in front of Ozpin. The only thing stopping her was her friend, Lie Ren. While preventing his childhood friend from attacking by holding onto the back of her shirt (which she could easily escape, but she was aware of what Ren wanted to convey), he was observing and waiting patiently. Pyrrha Nikos waited too, but, like Nora, her senses told her to prepare for battle. Her fingers twitched and she subconsciously reached for Miló and Akoúo̱, which obviously weren't there. The leader of the three, Jaune Arc, was assessing the situation. There wasn't much to assess though. A bunch of people were now in the middle of nowhere and the quiet atmosphere was tense. A part of him wanted to break the awkward silence, but he knew that wouldn't be appreciated. He wondered if anyone else was having the same thoughts.

Weiss saw Winter and immediately wanted to give her sister a greeting. She'd do that as soon as the inevitable conflict was resolved. For now, she just had questions. Where were they? How did they get here? Why were they here? What even is here? Questions without answers kept entering her mind. She wanted to ask these questions to the people here, see if they had any inklings because she was sure none of them actually knew. A question with definitive answers would be what was the deal between Headmaster Ozpin and that incredibly suspicious woman. As much as she wanted to know, she had enough tact to know not to ask.

"Can anyone tell me what's going on?" Ruby just had to ask. The silence was maddening and she had to break, also to clear up the confusions she had since she got here.

"I'll gladly answer that later, Ms. Rose. For now, please step back. The rest of you students too, " Ozpin almost demanded.

"What's wrong Oz?" Salem teased. "You've look like you've seen a Geist. Need some hot cocoa to calm down?"

"Cut the games Salem! What is your purpose for bringing us here?"

"If anything, I should be asking you that. What sort of magic did you conjure up to bring us to this," she looked around. "space of nothingness?"

He scoffed. "You overestimate me."

"Ah yes. My mistake. I should know exactly what you are capable of," she said condescendingly. "It seems both of us lack the answers."

Ozpin wished he could have found any signs of deceit. "... Indeed."

"Well then. Since you all are here in front of me, what do you plan on doing? You and your group look utterly defenseless from what I see."

"Silence," Goodwitch coldly glared. "We are not powerless, and we won't fall to you."

Ironwood raised his metal right arm. "Now that you're here in front of us, we won't allow you to escape. That goes for the rest of your criminals."

"What, was once not fun enough for you?" Torchwick commented with a forced grin.

"As if you can," Adam sneered. "That overconfidence will be why you'll die human!"

"Adam!" Blake cried out. "You don't have to do that!"

"Stand down Blake," he said with barely restrained fury. "He intends to put me down, so I'll settle matters with you right after I finish with him. A cowardly traitor like you has no right to interfere."

"Yeah, no way buddy," Sun cut in. "You want her, then you gotta go through me."

Yang put up her fists. "Not before me. I don't know what's the deal with you and Blake, but I'm gonna knock your lights out out if you threaten her again."

"You won't get near Blake." Weiss heard Adam's words to Blake and saw his White Fang mask, and knew what she had to do.

"Schnee!" Adam seethed. "Since you're volunteering, I'll kill you first then!"

"Nope!" Ruby sped (without her Semblance) to Weiss side. "I'm not letting you hurt anyone on Team RWBY!"

"Ruby, Weiss, Yang," Blake pleaded. "It's me he wants. Don't get invol-"

"Aren't I your partner?" Yang interrupted. "Aren't we a team?" RWY glanced at Blake with reassuring faces. "Let us help."

"But-"

"Nope. We're helping. Deal with it." Yang looked over to her birth mother. "Oh, and we're going to have a mother-daughter talk after."

"We have other pressing matters," Raven dismissed while focused on Ozpin and Salem. That only made Yang grit her teeth.

Qrow found the time to dryly crack, "Wow sis that's nicer than your usual hard-ass self."

"Can't we just focus on the threat in front of us?" Winter reminded.

"General Ironwood, Specialist Schnee," Penny reported. "I find myself unable to utilize nearly all of my combat functions."

"What?" Ironwood was alarmed. He and the others were weaponless, so he was hoping the android could still perform at maximum capabilities. "Is there something wrong?"

"Cause undetected. Must resort to CQC. No other options available." Ironwood and Winter scowled at that.

"Let me go Ren!" Nora whined. "Did you hear them? There's going to be a fight, and we have to join!"

"Headmaster Ozpin told us to remain back. We should leave it to him."

"As good a idea as that sounds," Jaune said to Ren. "I get the feeling we're going to get dragged in."

Pyrrha agreed. "If it comes to that, we have to be ready."

"Everyone wants to fight. Do you plan on giving your orders, Oz?" Salem taunted.

Ozpin thought about this whole mess he found himself in. He didn't want his students joining in, but it seemed inevitable. He may have delayed any ideas of fighting at the beginning, but didn't completely quell them. Team RWY and Sun were determined to protect Blake and go after Adam after revealing his intent, and the bull faunus planned to follow through any moment. The four of Team JNPR looked ready too, either going with his group or their sister team. He thought on his opponents. Roman Torchwick and his assistant didn't seem keen on entering the battle. That left Salem, Adam Taurus, and the "Haven student" Cinder Fall. He had superior numbers, but also doubts about anyone from his side coming out unscathed.

"Hey!" The shout was heard, and suddenly everyone felt calm. They slightly relaxed and turned to the voice. They could only tell he was a man due to the voice because the rest of his body was pure black. Nothing else. He even lacked clothing and facial features. Despite the disturbing appearance, no one had any thoughts of such. "Relax will you? I'm sure you all got questions and I'm here to answer." They all complied, as if a otherworldly force commanded them to do so. The villains side still looked at him with suspicion.

"Who are you exactly?" Ozpin started.

"I go by FG16, but just call me F. It's easier. Oh, and no need to introduce yourselves. I'm aware of who you all are."

"What, you a stalker or something?" Yang warily asked.

"A kidnapper too since it looks like you brought us here," Weiss added.

"Okay, first of all, it was my boss that brought you here," F groaned. "And it's more like he rescued you all."

"Rescue?" Goodwitch echoed. "None of us were in any immediate danger. Even if we were, why did you bring them?" She gestured to Salem, Roman, Neo, Adam, and Cinder.

"Because of this." He brought up and hand, and the ocupants of his domain saw the image of a planet and its moon.

Ruby easily recognized the shattered moon. "Is that-"

"Remnant," Ozpin stated, amazed just like the rest. They had never seen outer space before, let alone get a picture of what their world looked like. They stared, taking it in.

"Indeed. And this is what happened to it ten minutes ago." They went wide-eyed and/or gasped when they saw Remnant glitch out, for lack of better words, before imploding, creating a black hole.

"Remnant's gone!?" Many shouted (Neo would if she could). Even the likes of Raven and Salem lost their composure.

"Your whole universe in fact." Coldness enveloped the entire group.

"No way. No way!" Jaune yelled. "Please tell me you're joking!"

"Sorry Jaune." That made the blonde knight hold his head in stunned silence. The rest of his team, and everyone else actually, were as speechless as he. They could not form any words or thoughts. They just had to force their minds to grasp the fact that everything was gone in a blink.

After a long while, Roman spoke up. "I guess we're all in limbo now and you're taking us to hell or whatever?"

That idea evidently spooked some of them. "Hey just wondering, but I've been a pretty decent guy right?" Sun nervously grinned.

"You were a stowaway," Weiss reminded.

"And you did steal some fruit," Blake added.

"Stop it guys!"

F waved it off. "Don't worry. Like I said, you were rescued by my boss and placed here in my domain."

Ironwood asked, "This little amount of people? Couldn't more be saved? And why Salem and the rest of those criminals?" Roman and Neo rolled their eyes while Adam growled.

"I'm sorry if this sounds insensitive, but they're not important. Hold!" That evidently angered on most of the occupants and he held his hand up. With his other, he materialized a large holographic list. "The reason you all were saved is because your universe decided you were important." He showed them the list. The people of Remnant saw the list's title: Remnant's Population. Below that were names. F scrolled down and down. Different names showed up. Hundreds, thousands, millions. When F reached the bottom, they saw, under a underlined V.I.P., their individual names highlighted in gold. "It wasn't I who created this list, nor my boss, or anyone else. This was your universe. It deemed you all important, so you were saved and brought here."

Some like Ruby, Yang, Jaune and Nora visibly expressed their awe (Nora looked quite smug about the fact). Others, such as Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren felt the same, but didn't react as excitedly.

Raven and Penny had accepted the fact. For Raven, the weak died and the strong survive. This was a similar concept. She didn't agree with some of the others in here surviving with her, but she couldn't really argue against the universe. Everyone in here was important apparently, so they had the right to live. She was a bit miffed that no one from tribe wasn't here though. For Penny, it was a new fact about her reality to store away. The android also knew she was created with a purpose, and it seemed that purpose was great enough that she needed to be saved. She was also glad her friend Ruby was spared as well.

Goodwitch, Ironwood, and Winter, while grateful that they were alive, had a bit of hard to time wrapping their head around the fact that their universe just decided who mattered and who didn't. Part of their job was to keep the peace and save civilians, so leaving them for dead, even if it was out of their control, didn't sit right with them. Qrow really needed a drink after that explanation. Good thing he still had his flask with him.

Roman and Neo grinned at the fact that they lived after that ordeal. It was a bit comforting to know that their individual lives mattered, as well as their partner's. Cinder and Adam had smirks of satisfaction. The two lived, and so did their plans. They were more assured of their that they would complete their goals than ever before.

Ozpin and Salem had no reaction. Both of them knew just how important a role they played, so the fact that they were saved didn't really change them in any way.

Sun objected, "Hey, what about my friend Neptune? An the rest of my team?" He was annoyed that Blake got to keep her team and JNPR was whole too.

F's response was to scroll through the list and locating Neptune's, Sage's, and Scarlet's names among the jumble of others. "They're not on the V.I.P. list. Sorry. I don't decide this after all."

"Aw man," the monkey faunus groaned. He couldn't imagine how they would react to that. Weiss was slightly disappointed that they blue-haired boy wasn't here either. Qrow drank to Taiyang's absence.

"Well, now that that's put of the way," F dismissed the list and brought up holographic panels to each of the faces of his guests. "Place your hands here."

Ruby and Nora thought to do so, but their partners stopped their hands from raising. "Ow! Why'd you do that Weiss?" In this instance, Weiss smacked Ruby's.

"We don't even know what this is you dolt! You! What is this for?"

"To repair your universe."

"You can do that!?" Multiple yells echoed through the room.

"Yep. That's why I'm here, and why you're here. I can repair your universe. Once I'm done, you'll be sent back home, back to doing what you were doing before you got here. To start, I just need a foundation, so to speak, and you "V.I.P. members" are exactly that." With that done, the eager ones placed their hands on the panels, making them glow gold. Others followed through after taking in the explanation. Once they all became golden, the panels flew right at F, merging into one. He placed his own hand on it. "Alright, now all we have to do is wait."

"Wait, that's it?" Qrow couldn't help but ask.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"I would think that repairing an entire universe would be more complicated," Winter said, also dumbfounded.

"Trust me, I thought the same thing."

After ten seconds of silence, Jaune asked awkwardly, "Uh, how long is this going to take?"

F shrugged. "I dunno. Days, weeks, months, years-"

"Years!?" Exclaimed many of them.

"Hey, repairing a universe takes a long time. Don't blame me. Just be patient."

Nora yelled, "Can't you speed it up!?"

Ren sighed. "Nora, F says it takes a long time, so we have to wait. He is trying to repair our entire universe."

"I can't wait that long Renny!" She pointed to the pure black figure. "Do something to keep us entertained." Unknown to them all, F smiled at those words.

Yang agreed. "I'm not wasting years of my life doing nothing but waiting."

Blake nodded, but did counter, "There's nothing we can do Yang. Literally. Look where we are."

"Actually, I do have a secondary goal." F's statement got their attention. "And that is to ensure that destroyed-universe-surviving guests be entertained."

"Good to know we won't die of boredom," Torchwick said. He was so close to asking Neo to kill him. Doing nothing for years sounded like absolute torture. Everyone shared his relief, some more secretly.

Pyrrha asked politely, "So, what will you be doing to entertain us?"

"Ooh, maybe's a comedian or clown." Nora suggested. "Hey, tell a joke."

"Hey, if you're looking for a comedian, I'm already here," Yang boasted. She then saw the shaking heads of her team and her sister team. "You guys are no fun."

"If we're making suggestions," Qrow started. He gestured to the "host." "You got any drinks? Specifically good booze that aren't on Remnant?"

"Absolutely not! Alcohol will not be served to minors!" Goodwitch reprimanded.

"Who said anything about them? Just give it to us grown-ups." He took a sip from his flask. "Besides, s'not like we're breaking any drinking laws anymore. Remnant's gone." He made a mental reminder to not offer any to his nieces though. More to Ruby than Yang.

"Disgusting," Winter frowned at the drunkard. Ozpin and Ironwood just sighed.

"As "fun" as those ideas are, I've got something more interesting," F said with a smirk. "Have you all heard of the multiverse, parallel universes, and alternate realities?" He received a lot of nods and some confused looks. "Well to shorten, they're basically different lives and worlds. Things fiction to you are reality to another. Even such things as books, movies, and video games exist in another universe. " That intrigued the group. At the mention of books, Blake grew a look of wonder and Adam knew exactly what his ex-partner was thinking about. "With that said, I'm going to show you all these worlds. As a nice bonus, I'll show you all realities that focus in this room. That's right! You'll get to watch the lives of yourselves in other universe! Doesn't that sound entertaining?"

Indeed it did. All of them couldn't help but imagine what kinds of worlds they'll see. Such an opportunity did not come often. At all actually. Blake thought of Ninjas of Love being actually real. Ozpin imagined a world without Salem or Grimm. Adam pictured extinct humans and Remnant with only faunus. Ruby hoped to see herself in a house made of strawberries and cookies with her mother, Summer. Nora saw herself as the Queen of the World, Ren as King, and she was served pancakes by her sloth butlers.

F snapped his fingers, bringing some of them out of their daydreams. The snap slowly changed the white void around them and his black figure disappeared in a flash. "I've got things to do, so I'll leave you all be to enjoy," F's voice announced. "My domain will change into the different realms and you guys will "follow the camera," so to speak, so that you can watch up close and personal. There will be a break every five showings. Now let's begin shall we?"


	2. Final Battle

**Warning: I haven't watched RWBY yet. Only read fanfictions and wiki. Reactions and dialogue of characters may sound off and I may get some info wrong.**

* * *

The void finished its change. Cinder instantly recognized that they were in the Salem's Domain. Her mistress raised an eyebrow, wondering why they were here.

"This place is freaky," Ruby said. An understatement, but a shared one. Ozpin and Qrow's attentions were completely focused as they too shared Salem's inquiry. Suddenly, they heard a crash near them.

 **Jaune was flung back by an attack with the force of speeding truck. He was face down on the ground, bruised and wounds covering his body. He coughed out blood, some staining his chestplate.**

"Jaune!" cried his team and RWBY.

"Buddy, you alright?" Sun yelped.

"Guys, I'm right here!" That had the students and some of the adults to look back and forth between the two blonde knights.

"Oh you're okay!" Pyrrha placed a hand on her heart.

"Whew, you had me scared there Fearless Leader," Nora sighed in relief. Ren did the same and calmed himself down. Jaune himself was shocked to see himself beat up, but got over it quickly.

"That must be an alternate Arc," Weiss deduced. "What's he doing to get himself hurt, especially out here in this dangerous place?" She had no idea where they were again, but this also reeked of bad news.

 **There was a crash near him. He looked over to Cinder who was in the same condition as him, if not worse.**

"What!" Cinder saw herself looking absolutely terrible. Clearly this alternate her was in a fight, but there shouldn't be anything in Salem's Domain that could injure her so severely.

 **The two were breathing hard, struggling to get up. "Is that all?" They glared at Salem, who had hundreds of tendrils coming out of her body. Each individual tendril had the shape of a different Grimm. "I thought you would put up more of challenge than that." Salem's voice was reeking of mockery and genuine disappointment.**

"What is that!?" the Beacon students screamed in horror. Winter and Penny were not as loud, but too looked disturbed by the sight. They all looked warily at their Salem. Was she really capable of this? If so, they now understood why the rest treated her as a threat.

"So you two are opposing me?" Salem said to her minion.

"I would never, Mistress!" Cinder fearfully assured.

"Good. You'd best not give that notion any thought." Cinder bowed her head. Turning her attention back, Salem heard the tone in her alternate's voice. Was she expecting- no, actually hoping- that they would bring a better challenge? Her alternate wanted an exciting fight? Salem just decided to keep watching to get answers.

"Gods," Ozpin breathed out. He knew Salem was a monster, but this? This was a whole new level. The rest of his group and Raven thought the same. Ironwood was already making plans to combat this. It didn't escape his notice that Salem and Cinder shared a short conversation. At least it confirmed his earlier suspicions about Ms. Fall.

Ruby also saw Salem and Cinder's interaction. She wanted to deny it, but it was clear. She thought she was nice when they met, and to hear that she was working for this now revealed evil woman? She felt betrayed. Cinder was evil. Ruby had to stop her. Whenever Remnant was fixed anyway.

 **Salem's words got Jaune and Cinder's visibly boiling. Their anger overrode their pain and they got up. Jaune's white aura shone bright and it took shape. Jaune's body was completely covered in aura armor and his head in an aura helmet. He coated Crocea Mors with aura, his white aura protecting the sword and shield.**

 **The winds around Cinder raged and the ground beneath her shook, rocks even floating up into the air, before it froze over. A bolt of lightning shot from the sky and struck her, and Cinder's body erupted into flames. It quickly died down. Cinder's hair was was on fire, though it did no harm. Electricity sparked around her body. Her left arm was coated in an icy blue aura and her right arm had rings of stone gravitating around it.**

The little red reaper's thoughts instantly changed to focus on another. "That's so cool Jaune!" Ruby was already in front her first friend. "You look just like a knight, but in aura!" He bashfully chuckled at the praise.

"That's our Fearless Leader!" Nora cheered. Ren stared at his leader's parallel self. He thought his own aura control was decent, but this Jaune blew his skill out of the water. Could he too reach that kind of level?

"Good work Jaune! I'm proud of you!" Pyrrha happily congratulated.

"You guys do know I can't do that myself right?" Jaune said, but it came out soft because his face was flushed red with embarrassment.

"No way!" Weiss was stunned. "Such a level of aura control is unreal, impossible! How could Arc accomplish such a feat!?" Her sister, sans the hidden insult to Jaune, had the same thought process.

"That looks tough," Yang complimented, Blake agreeing.

"Taking the knight in shining armor too literally," Roman jested, but also impressed. Neo looked at both Jaunes in interest.

Their minds also reaffirmed why Cinder was the boss. That form of hers just screamed absolute power, even if she looked like shit before. Adam knew Cinder was strong, but this power her alternate possessed... Had she too attained such strength? He needed to find a way to counter it.

Qrow nudged Ozpin. "Hey Oz, that's-"

"The Maiden powers," Ozpin whispered, recognizing it when he looked upon alternate Cinder. What season was she? He looked at the Cinder of his universe. What did it mean for her? Was it just a change for an alternate reality, or was this Cinder the same in some way?

The False Maiden looked on in wonder at her parallel self. Did she gain all of the Fall Maiden's powers? Even with it, she doubted it alone could generate this much power. That means she must have gotten the other Maidens' powers too! Even as she smirked, she still had to remind herself that her alternate was using all of her powers to combat Salem. What was going through her alternate's head?

Raven figured out that this Cinder woman had gotten more than one of the Maiden's power. Did Cinder end up taking the Spring Maiden's power away from her? If that was the case, she had some serious training to do. She won't allow herself to lose unlike her own alternate apparently did.

 **Jaune and Cinder roared and launched themselves at Salem. The Queen of Grimm merely sighed. "This again?" A giant icicle spear formed above her. Without moving, Salem willed the tendrils at the ice. It shattered completely, but in center of the ice remains was Jaune. He swung his sword at and used his shield to block the tendrils coming at him as he fell closer to Salem. He landed in front of her and made to slash at her, but not before a blur of lightning got behind Salem. Fire mixed with stone, Cinder threw her volcanic fist at Salem's back. Their attacks were easily stopped, tendrils wrapping around Crocea Mors' and Cinder's arm. The Maiden didn't falter though. Using her other arm she mixed the ice with fire. She blasted the tendrils with water and, wasting no time, her electricity surged, shocking the black arms. The Grimm heads cried out in pain. Salem winced, more in annoyance than anything else.**

This Cinder was strong. Ruby hoped their own wasn't. She didn't think she could take that on. She was at least comforted by the fact that alternate Cinder was betraying her Mistress.

"What kind of Semblance or Dust is that?" Sun questioned as he and the others watched in shock and awe.

"Elemental creation and manipulation perhaps," Blake guessed.

"There's no Dust I'm aware of that is capable of this, let alone altering one's body to such a degree," Weiss offered.

Ozpin frowned harder he saw Salem didn't even look hurt while the Grimm woman herself looked pleased at her alternate's power. A shiver went down Cinder's spine when she saw herself perform a full-on assault on Salem. She was inwardly relieved when her Mistress just kept watching.

 **On the other side, Jaune made to bash Salem with his shield, but was blocked by a wall formed by the Grimm tendrils. Undeterred, he bashed again and again, pumping more aura into the shield, making noticeable dents in the barrier. They had enough though. The tendrils wrapped around Jaune's shield arm, cutting off movement. More were aiming to attack him. Thinking quickly, he turned the shield back into its sheath form.**

Pyrrha grew alarmed. He was making good progress and now it looked like he was giving up. "What are you going to do Jaune?"

He shrugged, but trusted that his alternate had a plan.

 **Jaune forced his sword into the sheath, cutting the tendril trapped around it. With the sword inside, the sharpened edges of the shielth extended. Jaune sliced the tendril that wrapped his shield arm. Free, he gripped his now two-handed sword and swung at the tendrils coming for him. Upper right. His left side. Up slash. A spin attack to counter a tendril coming behind him. He jumped, evading one planning to grab his legs. It got pinned when Jaune landed to stab it into the ground.**

"Your sword has another function!? Are you holding out on me Jaune?" Ruby pouted.

Jaune held his hands up. "Crocea Mors can't do that! Wait a minute. Oh man, I hope my parents don't kill other me for tampering with it."

"Tampering? It got an upgrade! It can become a two-handler. It looks stronger."

"I guess..." He had to admit, it did look stronger. The added designs to it looked slightly familiar though.

Pyrrha recognized the new parts of Jaune's weapon. She felt giddy and blushed when she thought of Jaune thinking of her when upgrading Crcocea Mors.

"Alright, you're doing awesome Jauney! Keep slicing and dicing!" Nora cheered.

"This Jaune Arc is certainly skilled," Winter noted. It was quite a contrast from the letters she got from Weiss about the boy.

 **"Hmph." Still standing still, Salem retaliated. From her body, hundreds of Nevermores were born and flew at Jaune and Cinder. Jaune had cut off the aura in his sword and focused purely on defense. His aura armor held, but started cracking at the sheer number of Grimm ramming themselves into him. Cinder created a solid wall of earth, but it kept breaking, forcing her to keep repairing it.**

"Forget tough," Yang took back. "Jaune's aura is a freaking fortress." No way any Huntsman or Huntress could stand up to that many Grimm hurling themselves at them.

"That's not the issue Yang! That woman created hundreds of Grimm from her body!" Weiss shrieked. The students of Beacon were in a state of surprise once again. Grimm tendrils were on thing, but actually creating Grimm? As if they couldn't think of Salem being a bigger threat, her alternate went and did something like this.

"The boy won't last much longer," Ironwood pointed out. He couldn't care less for Cinder's well-being.

 **Jaune's armor and helmet shattered completely. He yelled in pain as the Nevermores attacked, either shooting themselves at him or their wings cutting at his skin. Salem created even more of the black birds and they carried Jaune into the air by flying at his body from below.**

"Jaune!" RWBY, NPR and Sun screamed.

"Mr. Arc..." Goodwitch whispered, gripping her sleeve.

"Tough luck kid," Qrow said. He was worried too. He'd be worried for anyone fighting Salem.

"What's your next move, Mr. Arc?" Ozpin hoped it was a good one.

 **Screams reached Cinder's ears. "Jaune!" She took to the skies and flew after Jaune.**

Was she worried? Was that concern in her alternate's voice? That couldn't be. She would never form such attachments. Then again, she wouldn't go against Salem either. What happened to her counterpart to get her to his point?

"And she can fly too? Does she have a second semblance?!" Sun exclaimed.

The ones unaware of the Maidens couldn't find anything to argue against that. The ones who were aware kept silent.

 **Cinder froze the Nevermore trail carefully electrocuted the ones around Jaune. Once they were all dead, She grabbed onto Jaune's free hand and held him in place in the air. "Can you still fight?" she tensely questioned.**

 **"Do I have a choice?" Jaune weakly joked. Cinder smirked.**

"Now is not the time for jokes. You're in battle Arc, against a opponent above your league. Really, anyone's league!" Weiss reprimanded.

He didn't want to upset Weiss even further. "I get it!"

"Hmph."

"They seem to be close," Pyrrha "observed." Nora and Ren deadpanned at the jealousy.

Cinder mentally vowed to kill Jaune Arc. It was a small interaction, but Nikos' statement was spot on. Better to get rid of the boy and not let a relationship of any kind be allowed to form in the first place.

 **Cinder's eye widened when she heard familiar roars. She raised her other arm, creating a massive fireball, easily five times her size.** **"Amp! Now!"**

"Holy shit." Qrow's sentiment was shared by everyone in the room.

When Cinder and Salem heard the roars, their eyes widened and eyebrow raised respectively. Could that be?

 **A clear white light surrounded Jaune's arm. It spread to Cinder and coated her entire body. Cinder focused it all onto the fireball. Within seconds, it grew enormously, far greater than the size of a skyscraper.**

Penny spoke up for the first time. "I indicate that Jaune Arc's "Amp" increased the fireball's power tenfold."

Everyone's jaw dropped. They looked to their Jaune, who looked doubly impressed as anyone else. Cinder said "Amp!" Jaune powered up her attack. If he could do that too, his worth and interest would grow. Jaune looked upon his alternate before looking at his own hands. Was that his Semblance? Was his the same as his other self?

 **Jaune and Cinder looked at the Grimm flying at them. Mouths open and ready to devour them were the Grimm Dragons.**

Cinder and Salem's idea was confirmed. The sight of dozens of Grimm Dragons would please Cinder if it weren't for the fact that she had to fight them. Her giant fireball looked strong enough, so she wasn't as worried.

"No..." Goodwitch muttered. The sight of a Grimm Dragon had her on edge. Ozpin watched with narrowed eyes. The others were at a loss for words. This new Grimm was truly terrifying, and there were more than one of them.

 **Jaune scoffed at the Grimm Dragons. "Hungry?"**

 **Cinder finished, "Then eat this!" The colossal fireball was thrown. Its size easily dwarfed the Grimm Dragons, and the first one in the assault was instantly turned to ash, more following as they tried to stop the ball.**

The tension the others felt went away. The most intimidating creatures they ever saw were easily destroyed by other Jaune and other Cinder.

Cinder was perhaps too hasty in her thoughts of murdering Jaune Arc. He clearly made her attack significantly stronger, powerful enough to effortlessly destroy Grimm Dragons. If he could do that himself, then she wanted that power.

Salem glared at the sight. Her alternate better have a plan for this.

 **Salem looked on at the titanic fiery sphere rather nonchalantly. "Oh my. A simple, but powerful combination attack." She raised a hand. "I wonder, what will your counter to this be?" The Grimm Dragons paused, then turned into black ooze.**

Good. That unworried mentality at such a powerful attack was all the reassurance she needed. Now, what was parallel Salem going to do by turning her own Grimm back into their primordial state?

The others had the same question in their heads.

 **All of the black ooze came together in one spot. Salem clenched her hand, and the black ooze merged together.**

A wicked idea crossed Salem and Ozpin's minds. Just as others started to make a connection-

 **"I can't hear them anymore," Jaune told his ally. "What's going on over there?"**

 **"I'm not-" Cinder gasped. With a powerful roar, the new singular Grimm Dragon, with its wings and body, stopped her attack, which was now smaller than the Grimm.**

-it was too late. Many of them erupted into panic.

"They combined together!?"

"It's frickin huge!"

"Size increase by 1500%."

"Oh shit" is what Neo would've said.

If he had his cane, Ozpin was sure he would have broken it at this moment.

If she had any less self control, Salem would have laughed to her heart's content.

 **"Jaune, stop it now!"**

Alternate Cinder's order had their bodies waiting in anticipation and minds racing furiously.

"Jaune..." were the concerns of his friends. No one could see how he would stop such a monster.

 **"On it!" Jaune let go of her hand. His landing created a small crater due to his aura protecting him from fall damage. He jumped out and ran at the Grimm Dragon. It was so large that its feet were actually touching the ground. "Perfect!" He leaped onto a foot, coated Crocea Mors in aura, and, with all of his might, stabbed his weapon right into the Grimm's leg. He only penetrated a few inches. "Oh c'mon!"**

"Well that was anticlimatic," Torchwick deadpanned with Neo.

 **Growling, Jaune channeled his aura into his arms and pushed. The sword got deeper. "Cmon! C'mon! C'mon" With each chant, the sword kept piercing further into the Grimm's hide. He stopped when the blade was completely embedded inside the body with only the hilt visible. "Alright, see if you like this." He channeled aura into his sword once more. A second later, white light shone from the stab wound.** **The giant Grimm Dragon's foot changed from its pitch black to white. The white colored traveled up the leg. The bones on its body turned brown and looked rotten.**

"What's Jaune's aura doing to it Renny?"

Ren took time to answer. "It looks like it's... being purified and rotting away simultaneously."

"Can aura do that?" His partner asked.

"It could just be special for Jaune." He was trained in aura combat, and he never had this happen to him before. Usually Grimm just exploded. On the other hand, not only had he never fought a Grimm Dragon before, but his aura control was not as advanced as other Jaune's was, so he couldn't make any clear conclusions.

 **As more of its body changed, the Grimm Dragon continued howling, but now in agony. It couldn't hold the fireball back any longer. The Grimm was being pushed back, leaving large trails in the ground.**

"You did it Jaune!"

"Incredible!"

Ruby and Pyrrha's hugs were nice, but he was feeling a bit pained.

"Awesome! So amazingly awesome!" Too much pain! Let go Nora!

Ironwood cupped his chin. "That's one way to defeat this Grimm, though not a method that just anyone could employ."

"I'm sure there's other ways to defeat it General," Winter said.

"I hope you're right."

 **"Guess you don't like it," Jaune joked smugly. "Then, how about this?" He tore his sword out, channeled his aura to his feet, then jumped.**

 **Jaune redirected his aura to his sword. As he reached the wing, he swung Crocea Mors up. He let out a loud battle cry as he traveled farther up until he finally reached and landed on the Grimm Dragon's head. He looked at his handiwork and cheered with fist pump and an "Alright!" when the wing fell off with a clean slice.**

Qrow whistled and Goodwitch had her mouth open. Ozpin allowed himself a grin at the feat. "Impressive."

"Man Jaune, what kind of training did you do?" Sun asked.

"I'd like to know too," Jaune answered. The rest of his team and RWBY shouldn't be surprised anymore. This Jaune seemed to be doing one impossible thing after another, it was to be expected that he could pull this off. Yet, they continued to be wowed.

Pyrrha didn't think she could be more proud. She hoped her training sessions with Jaune could make him just as strong as his parallel one day.

 **"Quite impressive indeed." Jaune swiftly turned around to see Salem standing beside him.**

The sudden appearance spooked some of the watchers.

"Eek!"

"What the- Sis, get off!" Blake stepped back as her partner pulled Ruby off of her.

 **Salem pointed at the giant fireball and created her own sphere darkness. She smiled at Jaune and said, "Be a dear and help Cinder." But he was already gone before she could finish. "Rude." She shot her attack.**

Tendrils, instant Grimm creation, Grimm merging, high speeds, spheres of energy. Ozpin hoped that was all this Salem was capable of, but knew she had much more up her sleeve.

A tiny part of Salem agreed with the rudeness of Arc, though she questioned why she wanted the boy to rescue Cinder and meant it. For a better challenge? The two seemed outclassed anyway, but their chances of winning were only highly unlikely together as opposed to downright impossible alone.

 **Jaune jumped over the fireball, reaching a hand out. "Cinder!" She understood and flew at him. She grabbed his arm and he pulled her close, already coating both of them in his aura. That's when Cinder's attack detonated.**

Literally all of the watchers covered themselves when the explosion went off. They felt dumb when they realized none of them were vaporized, and again when the fiery light started hurting their eyes. A certain android remain unaffected.

The light finally went away. When they re-opened them, they noticed two things. One, they were quite a distance away from where they were previously, and two, the sight of a deep and massive crater.

Qrow almost dropped his flask. "Holy..."

Penny calculated, "From this distance, I believe the crater to be more than 200 meters deep and 500 meters wide."

Even the most hardened members of the reactors felt a tinge of fear enter their bodies. Such destruction was almost unbelievable. But they saw it. It could be possible.

Cinder looked at her hands. While a small part of her was disturbed, she felt mostly elated.

Salem was a bit concerned for her other, but she looked confident about her survival when she launched her attack. That calmed her down slightly.

Groans entered everyone's ears. They turned around to see alternate Jaune on top of alternate Cinder.

 **Jaune got off of Cinder and the two got up to their feet. They both sported minor burns. Some parts of their clothes were burnt away as well.**

Despite the tense situation, the Beacon girls, sans Ruby and Nora, couldn't help but blush when they saw other Jaune's revealed impressive abs.

Pyrrha had to smack herself repeatedly.

Blake turned her head away, but was clearly taking glances.

Yang whistled. "Someone's been working out, and it shows. Hot bod there Jaune." She wrapped her arms around Weiss and Blake. "Don't you agree girls?"

Blake stayed silent, and Weiss quickly denied with a red face. "D-Don't project onto me! That chest is in no way, NO WAY a pleasing sight!"

Nora admired while thinking jealously, ' _Can't let Fearless Leader outdo me! I'm the powerhouse of JNPR!_ '

Ruby was in awe. ' _That explosion was huge, and Jaune is barely hurt. He's so strong! Cool!_ '

"Nice one buddy," Sun smacked at Jaune's (clothed) stomach. "Almost as good as mine."

Jaune sighed at his other's loss. "There goes my hoodie."

Neo stared hard between parallel Jaune and Roman. She approved of the blonde, and she was aware that Roman, whether he wanted to or not, took a peak at alternate Cinder, who's clothes burnt away to conveniently reveal side boobs.

"Knock it off Neo."

Cinder briefly lamented the loss of her favorite dress.

"They're moving," Raven pointed out as she walked along the alternates. The group followed after, making their way to the crater.

 **The two looked down at the crater that was created.**

 **"What's your status?" Cinder asked.**

 **"About 60%," Jaune answered.** **"You?"**

 **"Roughly the same."**

They figured other Jaune and other Cinder were aura/stamina monsters, but after everything they saw, they were dumbfounded that their reserves were just above halfway finished.

Jaune did have a lot of aura, Pyrrha remembered. Still, this was a bit surprising. His aura reserves clearly skyrocketed to an absurd amount.

 **"Jaune! Cinder!" The two turned around to see Ren running up to him, Neo by his side.**

"Hey look Renny, there you are!"

"Huh. Didn't expect to see you Neo."

The two were also surprised to see their alternate selves. Ren felt his hair, wondering if he should get a ponytail like his other self.

Neo felt a glare. She turned to the orange haired girl. What was up with her?

Nora didn't see any another version of her with parallel Ren. Instead, this Neo girl was with him. Nora had to keep an eye on her. Don't want her getting any funny ideas.

 **"Ren!" Jaune smiled in relief at seeing them. "Neo! Where's everyone else?" Neo responded by pointing up and behind her. Jaune looked up in time to see two birds turn into people.**

 **"Hope we're not too late?" Qrow said when he landed. Standing next to him was Raven, who was watching the crater.**

"Uncle Qrow, you can turn into a bird!?" Ruby sped to her uncle.

Qrow patted her head. "Yeah, I'll tell you about it later."

If he can, then so can she, Yang thought as she looked to Raven. After their eventual talk, she was going to throw in at least one bird joke.

 **"I'm assuming Salem is still alive," Raven stated while gesturing at the crater.**

 **"Of course," Cinder answered. "That much isn't enough to kill her."**

Once again, Ozpin and his group found themselves scowling. Salem's power was even greater than they thought.

Salem smirked. She knew what was going through her arch nemesis' mind. His aggravation was so amusing.

 **"Hey!" The group turned to the voice. "I can't turn into birds like you two!" Yang pointed at her uncle and mother.**

"And here's my debut," Yang announced while checking out her other self. Damn, she was looking good.

"Yang, what happened your arm!?" Ruby shouted in horror.

Yang's blood ran cold, as did her friends. Other Yang's right arm was metal. A metal prosthetic.

Ironwood unconsciously rubbed at his own right arm, Winter taking glances at her general. Qrow whispered, "Oh gods." Raven's eyes widened in surprise at the sight.

Yang clutched at her limb, to feel that it was there. What happened to her other self? She suddenly felt scared. Would it happen to her too?

Hands on her shoulders and in her hand. She turned to see Ruby, Weiss, and Blake comforting her. "It's alright Yang," Blake said.

"We won't allow that to happen to you," Weiss told her. Ruby was silent, but held her sister's hand tighter.

Yang smiled gratefully. "Thanks girls."

The mother watched on, her eyes looking between both versions of her daughter. "Yang..."

 **Qrow waved it off. "Sorry, can't exactly carry you as a bird."**

 **"Lose a few pounds and we'll talk," Raven blandly said. I** **n response, Yang took her arm off with a smirk "Put that on. We're still fighting."**

 **She reattached it. "I'm catching up. Yang: 9. Mom: 13."**

Whatever Yang was feeling before, it was instantly replaced with annoyance. "I'm losing a battle of wits?! And to my own mother?!" She turned her indignation to Raven, who couldn't really bring herself to care about the contest the parallels had. Yang was so going to beat her score. Luckily, she knew more than one bird pun. The rest of her team sweatdropped at Yang's reaction.

Unlike Raven, Qrow noticed how Yang called Raven "Mom." She said it so casually, even having a hint of affection under her tone. And Raven's small joke before that. Did she and other Yang have a better relationship than currently, which was barely a relationship? What about his other self? Were they on better terms? They look to be fighting alongside one another, but that didn't hint much.

 **"As much fun as this is," Weiss arrived with Adam by her side. "Where's Salem?"**

Adam's anger went from zero to a hundred almost instantly. "What. Am. I. Doing?" Why was he there with a Schnee dammit! Had his other forgotten his objectives? Where was his drive to kill the Schnees?!

Blake's heart almost stopped when she saw Adam and Weiss. A thought crossed her mind. It sounded unbelievable, but there didn't seem to be any other explanation. Other Ren and other Neo seemed to be working together. Yang was with her mother and her uncle. Could other Adam and other Weiss be partners as well?

Weiss was thinking the same, and she didn't like it. Blake was an Ex-White Fang member, and Weiss gotten over it. Adam, on the other hand, was currently a member, and didn't seem to have any desire to leave. His hatred of her and her family was clear as day as well. Weiss didn't want to associate with this Adam, and the bull faunus wanted her dead. Why was her alternate self teaming up with that terrorist?

 **"Right there." At Cinder's words and finger point, they looked down at the crater to see Salem waiting patiently.**

 **"The amusing banter is over then I take it," Salem said before jumping out and landing beside them. All of them got into fighting stances, weapons drawn. "Everyone is here now. How did you all like my Grimm army?"**

 **"A good warm-up," Weiss sneered. "Now let's get onto the main event."**

 **"Eager aren't you?" Salem raised a hand. "I think you all are still not ready. How about round two?" In an instant, a thousand Grimm were born behind her.**

So fast, was the first thought going through more than a few of the group. Second was the variety of Grimm there. Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Ursas, Deathstalkers, King Taijitus, more Dragons, some they didn't even recognize. It was a sea of Grimm.

Nora hid slightly behind a glaring Ren when their eyes landed on a Nuckelavee.

Instant MASS Grimm creation, Ozpin mentally tweaked. He was clenching his hand so hard, he was sure his mug would have shattered of he had it. He muttered softly, "Salem, how strong have you become?"

"C-Can they really fight that many?" Ruby fearfully questioned.

"They got this Sis," Yang instantly said. "I mean, we dealt with something like this during the Breach." Yet, she herself was unsure.

"And everyone here is stronger," Weiss slowly added. "I'm... sure our other selves will be fine."

While the others were worried, Cinder was not. She remembered her training. Alternate Cinder was much stronger than herself. Her other self had allies, even if she had no idea exactly how reliable they were, except for Neo possibly. Against that many Grimm, her chances were good.

 **"Really? We just went like fifty rounds like twenty minutes ago!" Yang yelled with red eyes.**

 **"Round fifty or five hundred, it doesn't matter. We have no choice now." Qrow stated.**

 **"If you need me, come find me. I'm sure you all can handle this." Salem jumped away and disappeared into the Grimm horde.**

She's/I'm toying with them, Ozpin and Salem thought. The Grimm woman couldn't get a read on her counterpart. She was so unlike herself. Parallel Salem appeared to be more playful and teasing. It looked like she could have easily destroyed her opponents, but instead decided to leave it to her creations, and apparently had confidence in them to destroy all of them. Earlier, she pushed other Cinder and other Jaune Arc to fight harder, fight better, encouraging them to be stronger than herself. What was going through her other's mind?

 **"Kill any Grimm in your way if necessary, but don't waste time on them," Jaune commanded. "Focus on finding Salem." They all gave an affirmative at his orders.**

"Alright, you're the Fearless Leader here too!" Nora exclaimed. She shouldn't have expected anything less. Ren smiled. It seemed, no matter the team, Jaune would be his leader.

Weiss and Yang looked over to the other leader they knew. They were following him? Yang was fine with that. After those displays of power earlier, she couldn't complain about leadership. Weiss was reluctant to accept it. Other Jaune was powerful, she couldn't deny. However, this was the less than inadequate boy who annoyingly pursued her since day one. The idea of him leading her was hard to accept.

Raven and Qrow were the veteran Huntsmen, and yet they were following that kid. His skill and power were without question, but that wasn't enough. Other Jaune must have impressed them somehow to defer leadership to him.

Adam was less than pleased. First, his other self was with a Schnee, and now he was following a human! He wanted to go to his other self and beat some sense into him already!

Cinder too didn't like the fact that she wasn't the leader. What made Jaune Arc more capable than her?

 **Ren and Neo looked at one another and nodded. Neo ran off and Ren followed.**

That's a lot of trust, Ren and Neo realized. Only Nora and Roman could interpret their partners' silently communication like that. To have another means their alternates must have a strong bond.

"Can I play the overprotective Dad?" Roman joked to Neo, who rolled her eyes. Speaking of, she felt the glares from that orange-haired girl again. She looked ready to pounce, if she weren't held back by Jaune Arc, Nikos, and Ren. She sent a teasing smirk to Nora's way.

JPR need RWBY and Sun to keep the infuriated Nora from breaking Neo's legs.

 **"RYQ," Raven uttered.**

 **"Got it," both Qrow and Yang responded. Raven and Yang took off together, Qrow behind them.**

"So that's our group," Qrow said after a drink. The Branwen family as one team. He never could have imagined.

Raven watched them leave, curious.

 **"Stay close Weiss."**

"A first-name basis?!" Adam snarled. To hell with beating sense into his other. If they ever met, Adam would straight up kill him without hesitation.

Winter wondered how her sister ever got close to such an violent man.

 **"I know." The Schnee and faunus ran to battle together.**

Blake was dumbfounded, but also felt good. As a faunus, she never thought she'd end up working with a Schnee herself, yet glad that she did. Seeing another like her, her vengeful mentor no less, reinforced her hope that the bitter hatred between humans and faunus could be ended.

 **Jaune went for his sheathed sword before shaking his head and reached behind his back. "I'm around 65% now."**

 **"70%" Cinder responded. She barely took notice when Jaune held Crescent Rose in his hands.**

 **"Ready?"**

 **Cinder formed her own scythe made of glass. "Ready."**

"Jaune, explain why you have Crescent Rose!"

"I-I-I have no idea! Ask my other!"

"I can't do that! You better not get a scratch on her!" Ruby turned her attention to Cinder, who was wondering why she made a scythe. "And you stop copying my style!"

"Did you forget who taught you?" Qrow interjected.

"Now glass manipulation?" Sun pouted. "How many semblances does she have?"

Pyrrha said, "I'm starting to think those aren't semblances."

Suddenly, the world around them changed back to the white void. They heard F's voice saying, "Pre-recorded message: You have finished viewing this world. The next world shall start in one minute. End message."

Some of them whined, wanting to see more. Others were glad it was over since they were quite done with what they saw. As they all thought on what they saw, they got a ton of questions and no answers.

Ruby, Blake, Nora, Pyrrha, and Torchwick wondered where they were. They figured they would be with their partners, but they were absent for some reason.

Jaune wanted to know how he got so strong and so confident. That wasn't the kind of power one could get just through simple training, could it?

Weiss, Yang, Raven, and Qrow questioned how their others ended up where they did. A unlikely partnership and a stronger bond between mother and daughter as well as brother and sister.

Winter worried for her sister's alternate. Or rather, she was worried why there wasn't an alternate Winter there with alternate Weiss. She was sure she would've been her sister to protect her. Instead, she was relying on a White Fang leader. Said faunus was too furious and disgusted with his other to care about anything else about the, admittedly interesting, parallel world.

Ironwood had doubts that any creations of Atlas could effectively combat other Salem. He wasn't one to give up though. The fate of Remnant, whenever it came back, was on the line. The best solution he had was to destroy Salem and her forces immediately. Don't let them get the chance to get any more powerful. In case that didn't work, he couldn't think of any contingency plans.

Penny stored away all of the information gathered in that world. Perhaps her findings would prove useful. She also mentally noted to give a proper greeting to Ruby and her friends later.

Cinder and Salem still questioned their others' actions. They were curious of their pasts and what motivated them.

It seemed the main question going through their heads was what happened in that world's history that lead to that final battle with Salem.

As they waited, Goodwitch walked up to her boss. "Are you alright?"

"...No Glynda," Ozpin answered honestly. He didn't even see himself in that battle with Salem. What did that mean? He dreaded the implications. He hated that his battle was being fought for him. It was being fought by Qrow, a single member of his group, Raven, who abandoned him long ago, three of his students and their enemies.

"We'll stop Salem. We'll stop her before she ever gets to that point."

"I sincerely hope you're right."

As the world changed around them again, everyone braced themselves for what they were going to see now.

* * *

 **I believe I pointed out in chapter 1 that taking other sources of material, like other animes, and replacing the characters with RWBY ones and making the characters react to that was cheap.**

 **Those kinds of reactions are ones that won't be done in this story.**

 **If I wanted RWBY to react to, for example, My Hero Academia, I'll make them react to that, without replacing Izuku Midoriya with Ruby or Jaune.**

 **I'm going to try to have the cast react to original stuff that I come up with. With that said, I'm not opposed to basic ideas being suggested. For example: have them react to a world where weapons can turn into people or have them react to a world where people can only die of old age.**

 **If those examples sounded too specific, then yes, I do plan on having them react to those in the future.**

 **About the cast. RWBY, JNPR, Sun, Qrow, Raven, Winter, Penny, Ironwood, Goodwitch, Ozpin, Salem, Cinder, Torchwick, Neo, Adam.**

 **This is it. No one else will be added. Why?**

 **I decided that too many people would be way too much work, but I didn't want the cast to be too small either. So, out of all of the "important" characters shown in RWBY, I eliminated CVFY, CRDL, SSN, Ilia, Sienna Khan, Emerald, Mercury, and a bunch of others.**

 **I can already see arguments about Penny and Torchwick's importance. I'll agree that they aren't really in the grand scheme of things, but they're fan favorites I found out. Probably wouldn't feel right to exclude them.**

 **Finally, I'd like to remind you all that I haven't seen any of RWBY yet, so if the characters, dialogue, and reactions are off, that would be the reason.**

 **Well, that's all. See you next time. Later.**


	3. DustTube

**Warning: I haven't watched RWBY yet. Only read fanfictions and wiki. Reactions and dialogue of characters may sound off and I may get some info wrong.**

* * *

The void was still its white color, but now a giant holographic screen was in front of them.

 **An empty chair in a pink room.**

...

Ruby whistled awkwardly. Weiss checked her nails. Blake let her eyes roam the room for something more interesting. Yang snapped her fingers at the screen as if it would do something. Jaune scratched his head. Pyrrha put on her faux smile to hide her impatience. Nora's eyes closed and her head slumped. Ren waited patiently as he kept his partner from falling over. Sun squatted and played around with his monkey tail.

...

Ozpin adjusted his glasses. Goodwitch took deep breaths to calm down her rising irritation. Qrow took a drink. Raven gritted her teeth. Ironwood frowned harder. Winter tapped her foot. Penny took the time to check her systems.

...

Salem glared intensely. Cinder gained a tick mark. Adam shook and imagined having his sword back at his side. Roman took off his hat and spun it around his finger. Neo tilted her head from side to side.

...

One of them had enough. "This is a wast-"

 **"BOO!" Nora leaped out of nowhere onto the chair, knocking it and herself over. "OW!"**

 **An intermission screen with a chibi Nora was shown.**

Screams and sharp inhales of breath. Jumping and a step back. Falling on butts and slight flinches. Everyone had at least one of these reactions at the suddenness of on-screen Nora.

When she collected herself and realized what just happened, Nora praised, "Good job other me! You sure scared us. Take care of that boo-boo though. Aww, look at that tiny me! So cute!"

Weiss placed a hand over her heart. "In battle and in idiotic pranks. I swear, does every version of this girl have some desire to frighten others?"

"Most likely," was Ren's response of defeated acceptance.

While cursing the Valkyrie girl, they all composed themselves and watched the screen.

 **"Hello viewers!"**

Other Nora's happy smile and friendly wave had the opposite effect.

"Oh my Oum, she can see us?!" Sun exclaimed while backing away.

"Hello other me!" was Nora's excited greeting.

"Oh my gosh! Does this Nora have magical universal powers like F?" Ruby speculated.

Nora seemed too eager at the idea. "Then that makes me an omnipotent goddess! Bow to your goddess mortals!"

As the others started thinking similarly (and, in JPR's case, fearing such a notion), Ozpin was the first to notice and point out, "There's a play button on-screen."

That raised eyebrows from the group when they too saw it. The triangle-shaped play button. They saw that alternate Nora stopped moving. They all could only make one conclusion. To test their theory, they waited.

 **"Your Queen and the Best Girl is back with another segment of," a title card depicting chibi Nora behind a desk ranting to chibi Ren sleeping on a chair. "Nora Talks and Talks!"**

Jaune started. "Is this a-"

"DustTube video?" Pyrrha finished.

"It seems to be the case," Ren said.

Winter wanted to facepalm. "I fail to see the relevance. What does, Nora was it, her DustTube video have to do with parallel universes and alternate realities?"

"Well," Nora answered immediately. "I'm not a DustTuber. Other me looks like one though. This universe might be a what-if. Y'know, like, "What if I was a DustTuber?"" Firstly, she liked the titles she gave herself. Also, "Nora Talks and Talks?" What a wonderful sounding segment. Maybe she should follow her other's example once she gets back home. Oh, and have Ren edit and film the videos. He better not sleep like his adorable chibi though.

"A small change like that is enough to warrant its own universe?"

"I'm certainly no expert," Ozpin said to Winter. "but I assume many parallel universes are created through alternate histories, different people, and the choices we make, no matter how significant. There could be a universe nearly identical to our's in every way, but the only change is that Ms. Rose decided to drink juice instead of milk one morning."

"Never!" Weiss, Blake, and Yang deadpanned at their leader.

Ironwood spoke up, "Even so, I imagine that some of us were expecting to see something more significant than a simple online video."

"Our host's secondary goal was to entertain us," Penny stated. "Perhaps this video will be entertaining us in an amusing manner."

No one could really argue with that. Some were still seeing this "universe" as a waste of time though. Seeing as there was literally nothing else to do, they didn't have a choice in watching.

 **"It was movie night yesterday, so me and my friends decided on watching a horror movie," a cut to Nora stomping on a DVD case. "And! It! Was! So! Dumb!"**

"That's a bit of an overreaction."

"More like underreaction." Honestly, it was slightly unnerving how in-sync RWBY, JPR, Goodwitch and Ozpin were at that moment.

"Ooh, we should watch a horror movie too!"

"Only if it's that "Dog Rain" movie."

"Ruby, that's not a horror movie," Yang shot down.

"Speak for yourself," Blake disagreed.

It was at this time they all realized that the video stopped whenever they talked and played again when their attention returned to it.

 **It went back to Nora in front of the camera. "The worst part was that I had a nightmare about it last night." A cut to a chuckling Nora with her face in her hands. "And it was dumb too."**

 **"Everybody in my dream was acting dumb, and we kept getting killed off for dumb and obvious reasons." Nora clapped her hands. "So today, I'm going to share with you my fool-proof guide on," a title card pops up saying Nora's next words. "How to Survive Horror Movie Killers." A small caption read, "not actually fool-proof" at the bottom.**

"Ooh I can't wait. I bet I have a ton of useful advice." As she sent her sympathies to her other for stupid dreams, Nora herself was already mentally making a guide that she hoped would match her DustTuber self's.

"This sounds interesting." Yang's friends agreed and could only wonder what alternate Nora would say.

Neo was slightly intrigued. She hadn't seen any horror movies in a long time, and thus she doesn't remember any of the premises or clichés. She wasn't a fan of them anymore since she could just commit any of those murderous acts herself, as a sort of re-enactment if she desired. This was a sort of chance to relive those simple movie watching experiences.

 **"The first step is to avoid getting into horror situations in the first place."**

"Isn't that obvious?"

Yang answered with a huff, "Weiss, trust me when I say that no horror movie character ever has that thought. They always have to get involved. Idiots."

"Amen." Jaune and Yang shared a high five.

"You watch horror Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"With my sisters." Ah yes. Seven sister, Pyrrha remembered. It was almost expected that at least one liked that genre and dragged some of her family members to watch with her.

 **Nora gestured with her hand, "Something like this."**

 **It cut to a scene with Team RWBY in a car, with Yang in the driver's seat, stuck in the middle of the road. "Well girls, we're empty," Yang announced.**

"Nice ride." She got a glimpse of her other's convertible. Golden color with red and orange flame designs across the car doors. Parallel Yang clearly shared similar tastes with her. "I prefer Bumblebee as a motorcycle, but this isn't bad at all."

"You could be more responsible with it," Qrow half-heartedly lectured.

"Course I am. Besides, DustTube video. I'm sure I'm pretending."

Ruby and Blake took in the appearance of their parallel selves. They didn't look too different besides a change in clothing. Ruby pouted at her other not having her cloak while Blake envied how her cat ears went uncovered.

 **"How far until the next town?" Blake asked.**

 **Weiss brought up her scroll. "6 miles."**

 **"Hey," Ruby got their attention and pointed outside her window. "Isn't that the haunted house that belonged to that serial killer?" A creepy house was shown, shrouded by fog with dark thundering clouds above it and a lightning bolt struck the air.**

Ah. The obvious "something-terrible-happened-here" location. How could Neo forget?

Jaune nodded. "That's usually the first problem, yes."

"I give up all hope for the characters if they decide to stay in places like those," Yang groaned.

"To be fair, it's not like they know they're in horror movies," Blake argued.

"When they're told straight to their faces "Hey, this place is haunted," that should raise an alarm, but no! They're like "Hurr durr, what could go wrong if we stay here?"" Blake saw her point. She read some novels that had similar premises, and while she gave them all the benefit of the doubt, not many will do the same.

 **It cut back to Yang, pushing the car towards off-screen . "Fuck that!"**

 **Standing in front of a window in the house was a masked killer, watching the four leave. "Aw man."**

The Beacon students had a small laughing fit and Neo hid her amused smile behind her hand. Winter's face softened when she saw her sister trying to hold herself back while Torchwick noticed his subordinate's reaction and smirked himself.

"Oh man, you have no idea how much I want to see that in a movie!" Yang managed to say while clutching her stomach.

"If that ever happened, I wouldn't even be mad. It'll be so worth every Lien," Sun declared as he chuckled.

As Ozpin watched his student's having fun, he also took notice of the "killer," who, even if they were hidden well, possessed an incredibly familiar figure. He wondered about the reactions when the "killer" will eventually be revealed.

 **"Or this."**

 **Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were in police uniforms, standing over a dead Cardin.** **"Looks like that new serial killer got another one," Police Port said.**

"Peter and Bartholomew?" Goodwitch raised an eyebrow.

"It seems alternate Nora managed to rope her professors in her videos," Ozpin noted. "She must be on friendly terms with them."

"So Cardin's dead," Jaune said evenly.

"Sucks for him," Nora gave her condolences. Ren hummed in agreement.

"Indeed," Pyrrha flatly said.

"Aw man, why wasn't I the policeman?" Sun pouted.

"I thought you were a junior detective," Ruby remembered .

"That's why I would be perfect for this role."

 **"And they're still on the loose," Oobleck added. "I hear all of their victims lived in this neighborhood."**

 **The camera moved to Team CVFY, who overheard. Coco pulled out lien from her purse. "We're taking a vacation."**

 **A zoom out showed the killer overhearing from behind a house. "What?!"**

This roused more chuckles from the teens, who gathered themselves quickly after. "Team CFVY." Much like her team, Weiss didn't see anything too different about them.

"A shame they're not here," Yang said. "Bet they would've loved to see all of this with us." A round of agreement followed that statement.

Pyrrha frowned. Why did the killer sound so familiar?

 **"If that doesn't work out and you find yourself stuck in a horror movie situation, then here is the next thing you do." Big red letters appeared, taking up the whole screen. "Don't Have Sex!"**

There were looks of disbelief from the teens, Winter with a jaw drop, Goodwitch suddenly feeling less enthusiastic from the video, raised eyebrows from Ironwood, Qrow, Raven, and Ozpin, eye-rolling from Cinder and Adam, no reaction from Salem, and Nora, Neo, and Torchwick smiling at what's to come.

"Is that a common occurrence in horror movies?" Penny honestly did not know. Ruby wanted to answer, but couldn't. Ironwood and Winter didn't want to answer at all.

Yang collected herself from the suddenness and turned to android girl. "Occasionally. When it does happen, one of them is usually killed after." Penny nodded at the new info.

 **On a bed was a shirtless Ozpin on top of a smiling Goodwitch. Ozpin was leaning in.** **Nora commentated over the scene. "You screw, and you end up screwed! You're guaranteed to die in, like, the next five minutes at best."**

"What?!"

"Woah!"

"Eew!"

"Oh my Oum!"

Everyone's attention was on the "couple" in the room. Goodwitch's mouth was wide open and her face was simultaneously pale and red. Ozpin had his head down to avoid the looks. He hadn't felt this embarrassed in a long time. Salem didn't know whether to feel disgusted at her half naked enemy or amused at the small blush on his face. Raven and Cinder thanked the fact that finally something interesting came up in this "universe."

"Headmaster and Headmistress. I can see it," Qrow "congratulated."

Raven couldn't let the opportunity to mock Ozpin pass. "About time old man."

"Old is right. I've misjudged you once again." Salem apparently couldn't either.

Ozpin thanked his thousands of years of experience for how quickly he composed himself. "Our relationship is strictly professional."

Goodwitch coughed. "Professor Ozpin is correct. There is nothing scandalous between us two!" Even Ruby was surprised at how fast she said that.

"Quick to denial," Torchwick jested with a serious face. "Don't worry. We can keep secrets."

"Nothing scandalous, I assure you!" Goodwitch declared. "Let's move on!"

 **"Wait," Goodwitch stopped Ozpin, who looked confused. "Isn't there a serial killer on the loose?"**

 **Ozpin instantly got off the bed and put his shirt back on. "Let's try again next Friday."**

 **The killer groaned from outside the room.**

"Oum no..." Goodwitch hid her face in her hands. The chuckles and "knowing" stares from her students, acquaintances, and villains were too much for her to handle. She couldn't believe that other Nora made parallel Goodwitch play such an embarrassing role with other Ozpin. For that matter, how did her other allow herself to get caught up in other Nora's activities? On second thought, maybe she was better off not knowing.

Ozpin took a deep breath while hoping his death glare could smite the smiling Salem.

Ironwood had a look of envy as he watched the parallel versions of Ozpin and Goodwitch.

Pyrrha kept trying to figure out who the masked killer was.

 **Back to Nora in her chair, who shrugged. "But hey, at least you died after a good round of boopin' am I right?"**

"You're darn right other me!" Nora raised a fist, which Yang joined in eagerness.

Ren just sighed with a small grin.

 **Nora held up three fingers. "Number three, stick together. Obvious right? Not to horror movie characters. They always think that splitting up to "cover more ground" is better for some reason. And before I forget, number four: don't investigate in the first place! Leave it to someone else! Your chances of dying go up by 56% if you do that! I totally did the math on that right," Nora finished with a sage nod.**

While doubtful on the calculation, Neo could agree on those steps when it came to horror movie survival.

"I'd believe it," Jaune said with a shrug.

"I was thinking 57% actually." Nora nodded at her calculation.

"More like 100% to me," Blake semi-joked.

Yang patted her partner's shoulder. "Woah, too much Blake. Gotta account for that slight chance you'll live. 98% seems right."

"Not 99?" Sun joined in.

Someone didn't want to feel left out. "It's actually 98.12. Get you facts straight Yang," Weiss said.

Pyrrha giggled. "How accurate."

When she heard her serious Ice Queen partner crack a joke, Ruby couldn't hold it any longer. She was on her knees and pounding the floor with uncontrollable laughter.

"General Ironwood sir." James looked down at the android. "When Remnant is repaired, may I watch horror movies myself?"

"Ask your father."

It's good to see Weiss having fun, Winter thought fondly.

 **Team SSSN were in a forest at night. Sun gave the word, "Alright, let's split up. We could find more clues that way."**

"There's my team," Sun said. It sucked that they weren't here. with him Stupid universe. At least their parallels and his own looked fine.

"And you making a dumb decision," Blake added.

"Hey," he raised his hands half-heartedly. "I'm sure that's just part of the script."

 **"Or," Neptune objected. "we can NOT do that."**

 **"C'mon man, I wanna solve the mystery!"**

 **"And I don't want to die!"**

 **"Can't we just go home?" Scarlet said.**

 **"We can play Clue." Sage pulled out the board game from nowhere.**

Ruby could've sworn the board game was called "Inkling."

 **"Fine," Sun said before pulling out accessories. "but only if I can wear this hat and smoke this pipe."**

"Why didn't I think of that?" Those would've been perfect to go along with Junior Detective badge.

"Splitting up and smoking? How shameful," Nora scolded with an I'm-trying-to-be-serious-like-Ren face.

Yang tisked. "And that tacky hat worst of all."

"Can I at least have a magnifying glass?"

"You may," they allowed.

"Small victories, I suppose."

 **They all left, and a (frustrated) figure popped out from behind a tree with a knife. "Oh c'mon!"**

Pyrrha knew who the killer was now. She giggled with the others, who found the bad luck this killer was having funny, as she imagined the reactions.

 **Nora had her own pipe in her mouth. "I do not condone smoking." She blew bubbles. "Heh heh. Boop. Boop."**

"Ren, I want a bubble pipe."

"No Nora. Not after last time."

RWBY and Sun wanted to ask, but thought otherwise. Jaune and Pyrrha long ago learned not to.

 **She threw the pipe away and held up her hand. "Five: plan your escape route. Dead end equals bad end, so never go to places like the basement."**

Escape routes rarely helped when one is actually in tense situations, but figured that it couldn't hurt. Neo let it slide. Also, the basement. Basements usually aren't known for how pleasant they are. In film anyway.

"Never go to the basement," Nora firmly stated.

"Never." Yang agreed.

"Basements are bad." Jaune concurred.

Ozpin thought of Beacon Academy's own "basement," leading him to think about Amber. While he trusted F to take care of universal repairs, checking Amber's condition would be the first thing he would do once they all returned. He had to make sure her she was doing alright. It was a bit of a shame that she wasn't here, but with Salem literally a few steps away, it was likely for the best.

 **"I live in a dorm, so my dead end is the rooftop. Luckily, my escape route is right over there!"**

 **The camera cut to the other side of her room. Nora was standing in the open window. "I think I can survive the fall from here!"**

"Hey-"

"No Nora/Ms. Valkyrie," JPR and Goodwitch rejected. Her chances of survival were actually pretty good with aura, That didn't mean they'll just let her though.

"If there was a tree there, she could climb down it."

"Which reminds me," Weiss began. "Don't climb the tree to our room again, you hear?" Sun quivered at the icy glare and he quickly nodded.

 **R.I.P.**

 **Nora Valkyrie**

 **'I think I can survive the fall from here'**

A sad tune played on-screen. Nora and her friends bowed their heads in silence. "Her time came too soon," she whispered as she wiped an imaginary tear.

"She's in a better place," Ren said as he patted her back.

"Must you?" Winter asked in exasperation.

"I'm mourning the loss of my nieces' friend." Gulp. Gulp.

Raven shook her head at her brother's antics.

 **"And finally, we reach the most important step of all. If you somehow could not do any of things I've said before, at least follow this one. "**

The ones interested in this reality, minus Neo, stood at attention at the "most important step."

 **"In horror movies, what do the characters do when the killer is right in front of them and they're about to be murdered?"**

"Scream?"

"Run away?"

 **"They either just stand there screaming or run away!"**

Yang and Jaune bumped fists at their predictions.

Neo nodded. Yes, the victims more likely than not tended to do that. Some of her own thought they could take her on though.

Speaking of...

 **"I bet I can take a killer with no problem."**

 **A new scene was on. Nora grabbed a plate of waffles out of the fridge and placed it on the table, licking her lips.**

Nora shrieked. "Waffles?! You traitor!" She hoped the killer would shank her other then and there.

"This truly is an alternate universe," Ren said, equally as surprised at his partner. The same went for the rest of his teammates if their expressions of shock indicated anything.

Ruby suddenly imagined a version of her hating strawberries and liking veggies. The horror!

Turning down fish and bananas. Just thinking about it scared the two Beacon Faunus.

Ozpin thought about hot cocoa, and pictured a parallel of his drinking coffee instead. A reality almost as frightening as Salem.

The Grimm woman suddenly had the urge to slap Ozpin right in his face. Strange. Urges involving that old man usually involved defeating and killing him instead.

 **Out of instinct, she dodge, just in time to avoid the knife, which stabbed the waffles.**

Nora gave a thumbs up as she cheered for the killer in her head.

 **Taking advantage, Nora headbutted the killer, making them let go of their knife and having the mask fall off. The camera went to the killer's face, revealing their identity.**

Eyes landed on the "culprit," who nervously laughed at the attention.

"You're the killer?" Jaune asked in slight shock.

"I never would have thought," Weiss muttered.

"How could you?!" Yang exclaimed in faux betrayal.

Cinder smirked. "How the mighty fall."

Can we move on, Adam thought tiredly. He was chanting that in his head the entire viewing.

As if reading his thoughts, the "killer" gestured to the screen to keep watching. Their attention went back, but not before the Beacon students gave one last suspicious look.

 **Nora narrowed her eyes. "Pyrrha, I should've known. You always did have shifty eyes."**

Pyrrha felt her face. She didn't have shifty eyes, did she?

 **Pyrrha took out a second knife and charged.**

 **WHAM!**

 **Pyrrha dropped to the floor after Nora punched her in the face. Nora put up her fists and hopped in place. "Let's go bitch! I can take ya!"**

Rude, Pyrrha thought as she loked at Nora.

"It's all showbiz Pyrrha."

 **Pyrrha got up, got back her knife, and swung wildly. Nora took steps back and dodged every swing. When Nora hit the wall of the kitchen, Pyrrha went for a stomach stab. Using all of her might, she placed her hands on the walls and kicked at the killer's chest with both of her legs.**

 **Pyrrha staggered back, dropping her knife, and Nora somehow caught herself. She wasted no time and ran to the killer, reeling her fist back. She threw three punches to Pyrrha's face and ended with an uppercut, sending Pyrrha into the air and falling onto the ground. With a roar, Nora jumped onto Pyrrha. The two couldn't be seen anymore, but punch sound effects popped up.**

 **The punches now sounded wet.**

Even if it was a DustTube video, some of them couldn't help but wince.

Neo took in wet sounds. It didn't match real life, but hey, sound effects could only go so far.

 **Nora got up with a satisfied smile. She went back to her meal, threw the knife away, and ate the waffles, with her bloody hands.**

"Boo! Boo! Dirty waffle lover!"

Jaune patted his partner's shoulder. "Sorry for your loss."

"I'll get over it."

 **Back to Nora in her chair, she was eating waffles as well. "Sorry, I got hungry during recording," she said with her mouth full.**

"Heathen! I'll break your legs for betraying The Pancakes!"

Her team, once again, had to restrain her.

 **"And that was my guide on How to Survive Horror Movies! I bet you're feeling more confident about your chances, huh"**

I guess, were multiple thoughts.

Nora was not one of them.

KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!KILLWAFFLES!

 **"I know I am. I'm ready for any killer coming after my butt." She leaned in and whispered. "Now I better get going before Pyrrha decides to come back to life and get revenge on me. That usually happens in horror movie sequels right?"**

Yep, Neo confirmed. So many sequels.

So many bad sequels.

 **"Video's over! Your Queen dismisses you all! Until next time!"**

While she was still in her rage, Nora would admit that that outro was pretty awesome.

 ***KNOCK***

 ***KNOCK***

 ***KNOCK***

 **"Who could that be?" Nora walked over to the door and opened. "Hello?" She then got decapitated.**

 **The camera cut to outside the door, showing Neo sheathing her blade.**

"Hah! Take that you fake!"

"Please stop Nora."

"Kay Kay! I'm feeling better now!" RWBY, JPR, and Sun let out a relieved breath.

"Ah, good to see you haven't changed a bit." Neo held up a peace sign to her partner.

 **She picked up Nora's head by the hair, showing it to the camera.**

 **"Oh right," Nora's head groaned.**

"Oh my gosh, her head's talking!"

"It's just special effects and editing," Weiss reminded Ruby, who ignored her.

 **"My guide was on horror movie killers, not actual killers." Neo winked to the camera before the video cut to black.**

"Not one bit." The ice cream themed woman's response was to take Roman's hat. The thief didn't bat an eyelash at her pettiness. He'll get his hat back eventually.

Adam was relieved. Finally, it's over.

 **BLOOPERS**

Never mind. Back to agonized internal screaming.

Cinder and Raven were starting to feel somewhat the same.

 **"BOO!" Nora leaped out of nowhere onto the chair, knocking it and herself over. "OW!" She got back up. "No I got this!"**

 **The second time, she failed to jump and ran into it. "Ah! My foot! Ren, massage my foot!"**

 **On her third attempt, she landed on the chair, almost perfectly. "Yes!" That's when she noticed it starting to topple over. "Nonononono!"**

 **Nora finally got it on her fourth attempt. "Yeah, first try!" Ren was heard chuckling in the background.**

"I bet I can do it first try!"

"Ooh, I want a turn!"

Ren, Weiss, and Yang shook their heads at their partners/sister.

 **Ozpin, on top of Goodwitch, looked to the camera. "Just to make sure, this isn't for a porno right?"**

Many snorted trying to contain their laughter, while the poor man choked on air and the headmistress once again had her face in her hands. For once, Ozpin was glad he wasn't drinking hot cocoa. He was sure he would have been able to keep it in his mouth, but the risk was too high. It could've been all over Glynda, and he didn't want her steaming red from both embarrassment and anger.

Goodwitch hesitantly left a gap in her fingers to continue watching.

 **Nora laughed as she told them, "No it's not, now say your line."**

 **A cut to Ozpin actually kissing Goodwitch.** **"No, you leaned in too fast!" Nora chided off-screen.**

Regret.

Cat calls and cringes Goodwitch saw aimed at her and her boss no doubt. She closed the gap and her eyes while she attempted to shut them out.

 **The next scene has Ozpin stopping right as Goodwitch said "wait". She went in for the kiss anyway. "Come on you two. Do that in your time."**

 **"Apologies," Goodwitch sheepishly said. "Force of habit lately."**

"Oh yeah! You go profs!"

"How romantic."

"Again, eew!"

Winter could've sworn Ironwood said at something.

Penny heard it. "Lucky bastard..."

If she had mustered up any composure, it would've been destroyed at that instant. The confirmation of a relationship between the two and that it was not acting was too much for Goodwitch. Someone must've lit her with Fire Dust because the steam coming from her face had to come from somewhere.

Ozpin never thought he would do this, but he turned to Salem. He begged, "Kill me now."

"I never show mercy."

Damn that Salem. Damn her and her smirk.

He should be glad that was all she did.

Raven changed her mind. Sitting through that video was worth it for this one moment alone.

At least her Mistress was having fun. As much as she enjoyed the teasing thrown at the Headmaster, Cinder would have preferred to move on already.

 **Pyrrha was in the kitchen, singing and playing a game. "Oh, I have all my fingers! The knife goes chop chop chop!"**

Various gasps. "What are you doing?! No, put that down!" Pyrrha screamed at her other.

With wide eyes, Yang quipped, "Your other is pretty ballsy Pyrrha."

"You play five finger fillet Neo?" She pointed to herself and shook her head, then she pointed to Roman and nodded. "Heh. Poor guys."

Raven remembered the few members of her tribe doing this out of boredom. Good players, they were.

They continued watching. Parallel Pyrrha kept demonstrating her skills as her knife hit the spaces between her fingers. The students were antsy, hoping there wouldn't be an accident. When she started to speed up, there was much hand rubbing, teeth clenching, and yells. Pyrrha especially looked ready to faint.

Ironwood subtly looked down at his not metal hand. Losing five fingers was enough, thank you. No need to lose more.

Penny watched in interest. Other Pyrrha looked like she had good precision if she went this long without any cuts or stabs. The android wondered if she could perform this game herself. She didn't have to worry about injuries herself, and she could make accurate calculations on where to stab.

 **"And if I hit my fingers then my hand will start to bleed!" Various cheering was heard from off-camera as they celebrated with Pyrrha.**

Pyrrha took deep breaths. "Oh good. It's over..."

Fortunately, her composure returned during the time. "You will not replicate what we just saw. Understood?"

"Yes Professor Goodwitch," said the students. Despite that, Jaune, Nora, and Ren imagined their team member doing this game with her semblance. Would she be better or worse?

The large screen went away. "Pre-recorded message: You have finished viewing this world. The next world shall start in one minute. End message."

Nora pouted. Even if her other sucked, she wanted to see more of herself as a DustTuber. Maybe she could become one herself? Yes, brilliant! She was so going to use "Nora Talks and Talks" as a segment, and even come up with better ideas more more videos. That intro and outro about Queen and Best Girl? Yeah, she was taking that too. It was only fair. She knew she couldn't do this alone though. Perhaps Ren could join in to show off his cooking in side videos. And take care of the editing while he was at it? Perfect!

Ren knew what Nora was thinking. He hoped she would forget about it once they returned home. It seemed like such a hassle.

Neo was satisfied. Reliving the simple days of critiquing dumb horror movie tropes was fun. Lately it's been more business and less relaxation. Perhaps this "vacation" from Remnant was something she needed. Well, she planned to take advantage.

The others, sans Adam and Cinder, too enjoyed this "world," though Goodwitch would not openly agree. It was nice shift in tone from the previous world.

Ozpin's embarrassment was the only upside to Salem and Raven. It was a big upside to be fair.

The void was changing. Time for the next world. Unless it was another video.

It better not be, Raven, Cinder, and Adam hoped.


	4. White, Black, and Gray

**Warning: I haven't watched RWBY yet. Only read fanfictions and wiki. Reactions and dialogue of characters may sound off and I may get some info wrong.**

* * *

The watchers found themselves in an alleyway. There was snow on the ground and in the night sky. Ruby and Nora visibly pouted when they attempted to make snowballs and their hands went right through the snow like ghosts.

"Any ideas where we are? You know, besides an alleyway?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha pointed to the end of the alleyway, where she and the others saw light. "We should get out of here and find out."

"Someone's approaching," Ozpin informed them all. He was the first to notice a shadow at the end of the hall. Someone familiar came in.

 **Ruby walked into an alleyway, reading a sheet of paper.**

"There I am." Her counterpart looked pretty much the same as her. The only noticeable difference was the black cloak covering her whole body rather than acting like a cape. Too bad there was no red on her. At least they both had a hood.

"You lost or something?" Ruby shrugged to her sister.

"Lucky you got your cloak. You could catch a cold," Qrow chided.

"What you are even doing here anyway is what I'm wondering." If her partner was wandering into dark alleyways in the middle of the night while it was snowing, then Weiss better get a good explanation. "Eek!" Alternate Ruby had walked right through her! Her friends moved out of the way of the other Ruby. Even though nothing would happen, they really didn't want to experience a whole person phasing in and out of their bodies.

"Guess we should follow after Red." Torchwick saw no other option. While Ruby mentally whined for the thief to not call her that, the others agreed and walked behind other Ruby. One sister briefly stayed behind to look after the other.

"Hey, wait!" How rude! Weiss wasn't done composing herself after that scarring incident. Winter grinned and followed after her sister.

 **"Says you should be right... here." She stopped, put the paper away in her cloak, and looked down at a little boy.**

There were gasps and wide-eyed faces from almost everyone. "No!" Nora shouted and ran to the little boy she instantly recognized. "Ren!" She made frantic attempts to hug young Ren, but her efforts proved futile as she kept phasing through him.

Ren himself looked as frozen still as his counterpart. His child self was sitting in the snow against the wall, curled into a ball and head down covered by his legs. His feet and hands were unprotected, and his clothes looked torn. He thought about his past. Was this Ren similar in that aspect too?

Ironwood grimaced. "This child doesn't appear to be suffering from hypothermia yet, but his condition needs to be checked immediately."

This almost looks familiar, Cinder mused as she watched.

 **"Hey, wakey wakey." Ruby shook Ren, and he slowly lifted his head.**

 **Ren asked slowly, "Who... are... y-you?"**

Ren and Nora saw it all in the little boy's eyes. Fear and loneliness was something they could easily recognize.

To the others, they could only see emptiness. They could feel their hearts breaking.

No child should ever have that look, Winter and Goodwitch thought with grimaces.

Adam was slightly pleased at the despair he saw. Cinder looked at teen Ren and shrugged at the loss of a potential recruit. Not like he was needed, but another pawn wouldn't hurt.

 **Ruby gave him a comforting smile. "Just a friend. Let's get you out of here and to a nicer place, okay?" She offered him a hand.**

 **The child was silent, but he nodded. He took it, and he soon found himself lifted up. He was in Ruby's arms. He held on tight and smiled at the headpat he was receiving as the two made their way out of the alleyway.**

Now their hearts warmed at the sight.

"Thank you, Ruby."

"Oh, uh you're welcome, but it was other me."

"You would do the same." Ruby conceded to Ren's point.

Yang threw an arm around her sister's shoulder. "That's why you're the best." When she saw the grateful looks from Team JNPR, fond smiles from her team, approval from the Ozpin and his group, and the proud look from her uncle, Ruby couldn't help but blush.

"Hey slowpokes." All of their attention went to Torchwick, who was now out of the alleyway with Neo at his side. "Feel free to come any time." The two went off, Salem, Cinder, Adam, and Raven already ahead.

"Slowpoke!?" Ruby's eye twitched and she bolted out. Her friends could only shake their heads as they and the rest of them exited the alleyway.

"Anyone know what this place is?" Jaune asked as followed.

"Nope."

"No idea."

"Uh uh."

Not even the adults recognized the city they were in. It was a bright area, with so many lights on that one could mistake it as day if they weren't paying attention. There were unfamiliar buildings and stores with names they didn't know. The streets were packed with cars, none matching ones on Remnant. Of course, there was snow blanketing everything their eyes landed on.

"Either this is a city of separate world, where we inhabit it instead of Remnant, or it is Remnant, but with a completely different history," Ozpin hypothesized. Both explanations made sense, so they all accepted his guess.

"Ow ow ow! That hurts! Let go of your leader's ears!" When they caught up with the others, Yang and Weiss had to drag the nagging Ruby away from Torchwick.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up," he uttered to grinning Neo.

 **As she walked, Ruby said to the child, "I have three other people I need to visit around here. Is it okay if we see them first?" Ren gave a hum of approval. "Okay. Just sit tight okay?" While holding him up with one arm, Ruby grabbed a new piece of paper from inside her cloak. "Melanie Malachite..."**

Malachite. Yang wondered what Ruby wanted with one of the twins that worked for Junior. She better not be heading to the club. She'll have to give a stern talking to Ruby otherwise.

Cinder stared at the paper other Ruby held. It was in some language that she couldn't understand, but it apparently had the name of one of her "associates." Was it a hit? No, the child currently in her arms would not be there in the first place. Perhaps this was a recruitment. There wasn't much to go on, so she decided to wait for the answers to come. May as well observe the city in the meantime. It was completely unknown to her, so it'd be nice to get some pieces of information, no matter how relevant.

Alternate Ruby crossed streets and turned corners, all the while comforting Ren, who had closed his eyes and relaxed, but didn't fall asleep. "Aww!" Went the girls as they huddled around the child's face and pretending their pokes could touch his cheeks. Jaune envied how said boy's adult self looked so impassive at the attention his other was getting. Perhaps he was used to embarrassment.

This place is empty, Ozpin noted along with Salem. There wasn't a whisper of activity. It was complete and total silence. The Headmaster had a bad feeling about this place. His eyes wandered, taking more mental notes of the city. Salem just thought about how this all came to be, more curious than anything else.

Recording saved. Beginning next recording. Penny concluded that the data she was collecting would at least be useful for any future architectural plans.

Qrow stopped. "That don't look good." All of them paused to look at the sight in front of them. They had arrived at a park, where a car had drove into a tree.

Winter noticed the tracks on the ground and followed its trail back onto the street. "The weather must have caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle."

"Do you think the driver is okay?" Ruby asked with concern.

Sun was already ahead to get a closer look. "Only one way to find out."

 **With one hand, Ruby got the unconscious Melanie out of the passenger's seat and onto the ground. "Hey." Ruby shook her. "Time to get up."**

The group arrived and crowded around the three. Yang inhaled sharply, having recognized the one of the twins. She didn't think positively of either of them, but this version was in a car accident.

"Looks she's doing fine," Sun commented on the lack of visible injuries.

"She should still be checked for internal injures," Goodwitch said. She did fall unconscious. The professor doubted that she came out unscathed. "Miss Rose, next time you see a victim of an accident like this, immediately contact for medical support. That goes for the rest of you students."

"Y-Yes Ms. Goodwitch."

After the small lecture, Pyrrha took a look inside the car through the windows. "There's no other passengers. No driver either. The key is still inside the ignition." Then she gasped and stepped away. "On the windshield... blood." That prompted Ironwood, Winter, and Blake to get a look as well. The cracked glass was indeed stained red.

"On the passenger's side." Blake looked the unconscious Melanie, who was starting to wake up. "Where she was sitting."

"But she's not suffering from any injuries or wounds. Not even a scratch." Ironwood cupped his chin in thought. "Odd."

 **With a groan, Melanie slowly opened her eyes. She tiredly got up to her feet. "You alright?" She turned her head to Ruby.**

 **"Just fine."**

 **"Do you remember what happened?" Melanie crossed her arms and closed her eyes in thought. After a few seconds, she went wide-eyed and gasped. She spun around. She quietly stared at the wreck in front of her.**

They stared along with Melanie or at her, unsure of what else to do. Some of them were thinking about the accident though, mainly-

"I wonder what happened to the driver," Blake said.

Nora guessed, "You think they left?"

Winter pondered, "That's one reasonable possibility, but that doesn't sound correct."

"You got any other theories Ice Queen?" Winter glared at Qrow, but didn't respond. She needed more time to think on the matter.

Ozpin took the time to inspect the vehicle himself. He announced his findings, "The seat belt is still plugged in on the driver's side." Understandably, he got looks of confusion. Even more when they decided to look inside themselves to confirm his statement.

"So wait," Qrow had to make sure he had this right. "for one reason or another, the driver got out of the car... but took the time to plug in the seat belt?"

Goodwitch nodded. "Even if the driver was not in the right state of mind, doing something like that still doesn't make any sense."

Ozpin retorted, "Yet, we can't deny what's in front of us." He crossed his arms in thought, his mind running to find a solution to this puzzle.

 **After a long pause, Melanie asked, "Miltia?"**

 **"She's going to be alright."**

 **"Oh." Melanie placed a hand over her heart. A small grin formed. "That's good."**

"Miltia?" Ruby repeated.

Yang answered, "Her twin sister."

"Oh. Wait, you know them?"

"Remember that club I trashed? I met them there."

Qrow perked up. "What was that about a club you trashed?"

Yang started to sweat. "Uh, I meant a club I... got smashed! Yeah. Got a totally bad hangover."

"You went underage drinking?" Yang cursed herself in silence.

Goodwitch scowled at the memory of that night. She and Ozpin had spent it doing damage control for the up and coming Beacon student. That was fun.

 **A hand touched Melanie's cheek. She turned her head and saw the child in Ruby's arms reaching over to her. Melanie chuckled at the attempt at comfort. "Thanks kid." The two shared smiles.**

As if the girls' hearts couldn't melt any more.

"You were a good kid," Jaune praised.

"That's not me." Yet, Ren couldn't help but feel good at what his counterpart did. It reminded of the days when he gave Nora that same comfort, and her doing the same for him.

 **"There's still two more people to visit." Ruby walked away, Ren still in her arm. "Follow me, okay?" Melanie quickly trailed behind, but not before giving one last look at the car.**

It was time to go, but they still didn't solve the puzzle of the car accident. That irritated Cinder a bit, but in the end it was nothing to worry about. Melanie and Miltia were but simple pawns, and this was not her world. Unfulfilled curiosity about their fates wouldn't kill her. She was in the same boat as everyone else since they didn't couldn't figure this mystery out either, not even her Mistress. Salem dismissed the thought and left as soon as other Ruby said that she was finished here.

Ozpin wanted to figure this out before they left, but it was clear that he didn't have a choice. He left, his group (plus Winter) following next to him. He saw that Salem, Cinder, Torchwick, Neo, and Adam were ahead, being the first ones to leave. Raven was behind them, probably keeping an eye on them. At least, on Salem and Cinder. He hurried his steps to do the same.

Penny put aside the notes she took of this incident, making a note to come back to it later. She followed after her friend Ruby and Ruby's friends. She paused when they did, allowing the white-haired girl from the accident to get her last look and get ahead of them.

 **Ruby pulled out from her cloak a black piece of paper. "Weiss Schnee..."**

A Schnee's name on a black paper. Adam had no idea what that meant, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement for what's to come.

Cinder focused on the black paper. It was a different color from the other two parallel Ruby Rose pulled out. What's the significance? She thought about the events she witnessed in this world thus far as she followed. Salem looked at the paper in curiosity, but waited patiently. They'll soon see this other Weiss Schnee girl.

"Well that isn't ominous at all," Torchwick commented to his partner. Neo rubbed her gloved hands together with a smirk aimed at him. "Yeah. Should be interesting."

"So, what'd we miss?" Torchwick and Neo looked behind them. Apparently, the Headmaster, his posse, and Red's little group caught up, though the small breath the blonde noodle released indicated that they made a break for it to catch up. Seeing as how the others he and Neo left with weren't responding, Torchwick decided to be nice and answer the faunus' question.

"Nothing important monkey boy."

"Hey!"

"Let it go Sun," Blake said as she sent a glare at Torchwick. Sun sighed and did what Blake told him.

The rest of the walk was spent in silence, once more taking in the sites. Other Ruby, and her companions (both groups), stopped outside of an apartment complex. "This place don't look too bad," Yang said as she examined the building. The other Ruby gestured for with her finger for Melanie to keep following her. They phased through the entrance, and the watchers followed suit.

Jaune asked in curiosity, "Anyone know who we're visiting?" He got denials from his friends and silence from the rest.

 **Ruby looked at the child in her arms. "Hold onto me tight." Ren understood and wrapped his arms around her neck. Ruby held her hand to Melanie. "Grab on." While confused, Melanie did what she commanded. She let out a screech when Ruby suddenly decided to jump.**

"Woah!"

"What the-"

"AAH!"

The suddenness of instantly passing straight through three floors had nearly all of the occupants stumbling.

Ozpin hummed. "So this is what F meant by "follow the camera.""

Goodwitch added, "It seems selective. We did need to follow Ms. Rose on foot after all."

"That was a rush," Yang said as she and her friends got their footing.

"Again!"

"No Nora," JPR denied, with Jaune feeling slightly sick.

"Over there everyone." The android had spotted other Ruby, Ren, and Melanie going through a door labelled four.

Qrow uttered, "Well, let's ge-"

 **"Ah!"**

"What was that?" Ruby didn't wait for an answer as she sped pass everyone else and phased through the door.

"Ruby wai-"

"Ah!" They saw the girl crawl back out on the ground, pale faced and hyperventilating.

"Ruby!" Her friends and uncle came to her side. "What's wrong?" Yang questioned while holding her hands.

"W-" Inhale. "W-" Inhale. "W-"

Qrow patted her back. "Calm down. Deep breaths. In. Out."

Roman looked at Red curiously, then looked at the door she came out from. "Wonder what's got her worked up?" Neo went on ahead to see for herself. Shrugging, he he walked through the door himself. He got a good look and nodded in understanding. "Oh, that's what."

"Hmm, I see." Roman looked over to see Cinder staring impassively at the sight in front of her, the Salem woman acting similarly.

"Heh heh heh. Ha, ha! Hahahahaha!" The bull faunus was apparently having the time of his life.

Raven closed her eyes, taking in what she saw while thinking about the info she gathered from this world. "W-Wh... Thi-This can't... Why? Why would..." The Branwen ignored the older Schnee's distress and focused on the child Ren and Melanie. What did this mean for them?

Ironwood took it upon himself to comfort his Specialist. She needed it right now.

Glynda's eyes widened, and she held a hand to mouth. "No. Miss..."

Ozpin stared, refused to take his eyes away from the sight of the counterpart. While he had seen this kind of scene before, it would always be unnerving. He muttered to himself, "What happened? What forced you to this point?"

Qrow and Yang stayed outside. Weiss, Blake, JNPR, Sun, Penny finally came through the door and saw it.

Penny wasn't sure what to do. She could only stand still and watch. "Oh dear..."

"Woah!" Sun jumped back in surprise. He clenched at his chest in an attempt to slow down his rapidly beating heart.

Jaune and Pyrrha shook, constantly looking between their friend and what was in front of them.

Nora and Ren went white, but instinctively knew that they weren't the ones who needed comfort right now. The went over to her. Nora embraced her along with Blake, and Ren stayed close, a hand on her shoulder.

"Weiss..." Blake held her close, for Weiss would have fallen over in sheer disbelief. "That's not you. You aren't like that..." Blake was grateful to Nora. Honestly, she felt like collapsing herself.

"Why? Why? Why? Why?" Weiss never felt colder. "Why... would I...?"

 **"Do you see this often?" Melanie hesitantly asked.**

 **"It happens every now and then," Ruby bluntly answered as she stared at Weiss Schnee...**

 **hanging from the ceiling with rope around her neck.**

"Weiss!"

"..Winter?" The girl barely whispered when her older sister freed herself from the general and flung herself at her. She felt her sister's hands travel around her back and her ear above her heart. She felt the tears dripping onto her. Winter's on her chest, Blake's traveling down her shoulder, and Nora's on her back. "Winter..."

"Weiss... Pl-Please..." Weiss didn't respond. "Please... don't..." Winter hugged harder. "Weiss!" The hands on her gripped harder. Weiss felt four more pairs grasp onto her, one person blocking the sight of "her" corpse.

She finally allowed the shock to fade to comfort her sister with her own hug.

 **"Hold onto the kid." Melanie was given no chance to deny the request as Ren was shoved into her arms. She carefully held the child while they both watched Ruby. She** **held her hand out, and, from black smoke, a scythe materialized.**

"The hell?" Torchwick uttered in surprise, but composed himself soon after. "At least that's consistent." Neo leaned in, curious at what would happen next, Adam doing the same, not bothering to hide his giddiness.

Cinder placed her chin in her hand. "Scythe, people's names, corpse..."

' _Child out in the cold, car accident, suicide,_ ' Raven internally listed.

' _I see now,_ ' Ozpin and Salem realized. This world's Ruby Rose...

 **The blade glowed red, and immediately Ruby sliced at the corpse.**

 **Weiss's body was soon enveloped completely by red glow. Ruby pointed her scythe at the body and the weapon consumed the red energy. To Melanie's and Ren's horrors, they heard the screams of a girl as the scythe was fed.**

...is Death.

"Wh-What is-?"

Ren mustered up as much mental strength as he could as he was the only one of the teens, besides Penny, watching Death. "Shh Weiss. Don't focus on the noise."

Penny supported, "Yes Friend Weiss Schnee. Leave the disturbing sight for us to watch."

"So this is Death," Salem mused in slight fascination. "Interesting."

Ozpin said to himself with narrowed eyes. "Death... is different from what I expected."

As he watched, Ironwood morbidly thought to himself, ' _Is this what it's like on Remnant?_ '

"Yes!" Adam uttered with a crazed grin. "Feel that Schnee? No less than what you deserve!"

 **When the screams stopped, Weiss's body was gone.**

Ren informed, "It's over now." No one let go of Weiss, himself included.

Torchwick grimaced with a shudder. "So not looking forward to that." Neo shook her head in agreement, not as frightened as her partner.

Cinder's eyes were focused solely on Ruby Rose's counterpart, admiring the performance. "Such power. As expected from Death itself."

 **Ruby dissipated her scythe and turned to Melanie and Ren. The two opened their mouths to say something, but Ruby cut them off. "Let's go." She pulled out her final paper, a gray one this time, and proceeded to leave.**

Salem and Cinder followed Death, intrigued at what would happen next, with Raven keeping her distance behind them. Adam, Torchwick and Neo left after them, the faunus completely satisfied at the showing and the the latter two felt a bit uncomfortable staying in the room.

Ozpin hurried after them, but not before sparing a look to Goodwitch, who understood immediately, and Qrow, still out in the hallway, asking him, "What happened?"

Ozpin saw the his world's Ruby Rose, who was covering her eyes, flinch. He answered, "I'll leave it to your imagination," and went on ahead.

' _I think I got a good guess,_ ' Qrow thought as he picked up his younger niece. "C'mon Yang." His older niece followed, though staring at the ground with a blank face. She had been like that for the past couple minutes.

 **As she went off, Melanie held Ren closer to her, the boy burying his face into her shirt, and followed Ruby.**

"Students," Goodwitch said softly. "It's best that we leave."

"Schnee, Penny, you two as well," Ironwood added. "I don't think any of us want to linger here anymore."

They slowly got off of Weiss, though Winter and Blake continued to hold her hands. They left all together. Weiss turned her head for one final look, but JNPR, Sun, Penny, Professor Goodwitch, and General Ironwood were walking behind her. She couldn't see a glimpse of "her" room.

 **Melanie caught up to Ruby just in time to barely hear her saying, "James Ironwood..."**

' _Black is hell, and white probably means being saved. Is gray limbo?_ ' Cinder wondered.

Ozpin looked at the gray paper in Death's hand. He hoped, ' _Perhaps you'll have a better fate._ '

The General of Atlas too? Adam didn't think this world could get any better.

"Oh Jimmy," Qrow sighed with a frown. Suddenly, he felt Ruby jump off and run behind him. He looked back to see everyone else and Ruby hugging the younger Schnee. He faced Yang and turned her around. Wordlessly, she too went over to embrace Weiss.

"Who's next?" Looked like Glynda and Jimmy were with him now.

With a wince, he answered Glynda's question by handing Ironwood his flask. "Save some for me."

Ironwood frowned and Goodwitch's mouth opened in surprise. Still, they followed him and Ozpin, who were all lost in thought.

The entire group had left the building and wandered around the city, Death in the lead. It was a silent walk, some reflecting on what they've seen in this world while the others didn't want to think about it. They wanted this viewing of this world to end already.

They eventually came to a house. As Death Ruby, Melanie, child Ren, and his fellow watchers went inside, James gripped tighter on Qrow's flask. "I've seen plenty of bodies," James softly reassured himself. "This should be no different."

They all jumped through to the second floor, stopping outside a door. The general steeled himself once more.

 **Ruby, Melanie, and Ren went into the room. There they saw James Ironwood, lying face down on the ground, one hand on his chest and the other outstretched.**

Ironwood stared for a few seconds.

He took a drink.

"Not all of it, remember." Screw you Qrow. He'd drink as much as he wanted to.

Ozpin looked at the body, then to the desk where the body was near. On top of the desk was a bottle. He examined the label. He reported, "It appears you had a heart problem."

"Just great." He took another sip.

A little disappointing, but Adam wouldn't say this was bad news. Torchwick and Neo unknowingly agreed with him. Maybe this was one problem off their backs, or their others' backs to be exact.

 **Ruby knelt down to the body and shook the shoulder once while placing the folded gray paper in Ironwood's hand. "We're done here."**

All of them shared the same thought. Just like that?

 **"...Just like that?" Melanie couldn't help but ask.**

 **"Yeah." She looked at the two. "Now let's get you two where you need to go." She left the room. Once again, Melanie followed. Ren stared at the body with a curious face as they left.**

"Well, that was short," Ironwood commented, not displeased.

"Good." His hand then felt empty. "I'll be taking this back." Qrow took a sip as he left.

"I appreciate your generosity," Ironwood thanked half sarcastically, following Qrow.

How dull. Salem, Cinder, and Adam left feeling disappointed at the lack of a performance, with the bull faunus not bothering to hide it with his mutterings.

"Still don't know what gray is, but I'm hoping for that," Torchwick said to Neo as they walked out. His partner responded by pointing at his black hat. He sighed. "I'm aware. Got anything in mind to raise our karma or whatever?" She rubbed her index and middle finger with her thumb. "I ain't donating to charity!"

"Our final stop," Ozpin said to Goodwitch. "If I'm right, Mr. Lie and Melanie Malachite get a happy ending."

"At least this world will end on good note," Goodwitch said while looking at the silent teens and Winter. The older Schnee was still holding onto her sister's hand and Miss Rose had taken Miss Belladonna's place, grasping onto Weiss Schnee's whole arm. The disguised cat faunus and Miss Xiao Long were also standing close to their teammate, while the others were walking near them, taking looks at Weiss every now and then.

After some more time of walking, they all found themselves at graveyard.

"Why am I not surprised?" Qrow remarked. "And what's with the light?"

They stopped in the middle of the graveyard and in front of them was a light in the shape of a door.

Goodwitch was mesmerized. "Is that...?"

"I believe so Glynda," Ozpin answered just as fascinated. Despite the incredible shine, none of them felt the need to turn away or block their eyes. Even the solemn students and Specialist were brought out of their mood to look at the magnificent light.

 **"Well, here's your stop."**

 **"Um... thanks, I guess."**

 **"Why are you thanking me? This is all you." Melanie looked a little surprised at that.**

' _Doubt she's as good in my world_ ,' Yang thought as she looked at Melanie. ' _But maybe I should give another visit. Just to see for sure._ '

 **"This is goodbye?" Ren asked, a tone of uncertainty in his voice.**

Ren felt a tug on his sleeve. "Not as long as I'm here." Ren gave Nora a one armed hug.

 **Ruby extended her hand to Ren. He flinched and closed his eyes, but gasped when he received a headpat. When he looked at Ruby, he saw a comforting smile. "Yeah. It was nice knowing you kid."**

 **The boy finally relaxed and returned his own smile.**

A soft "Aw..." was heard from the teens.

Ren smiled at his other. ' _If your life is similar to mine, then you deserve a good afterlife._ '

 **The three stared at each other before Ruby motioned for them to move along. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry." Melanie turned around took one step before pausing. "When you see my sister, can you tell her I said hi?"**

 **"I won't remember by then."**

 **"...Oh."**

"Mean," Ruby couldn't help but weakly chastised.

 **"Besides, you can tell her yourself when you see her."**

 **"...Heh. You're right."**

"That's better."

Ruby was enveloped in someone's arms. "Even when you're like that, you're still a good kid."

She chuckled. "Thanks Yang."

 **Melanie walked once again. She asked the child in her arms. "So, what's your name?"**

 **"Ren."**

 **"Hey Ren. I'm Melanie." Melanie stopped right in front of the light. "You got any family Ren?" The child shook his head.**

' _Just like me. Just like Nora too._ ' Ren was a bit upset to know that Nora wasn't present at all, much less if she was a part of this Ren's life. Then again, he was glad that she was still alive somewhere.

 **"Well, if we see each other again," she tightened her hold. "I'll be your big sister."**

 **"Big sister?" Ren repeated in surprise.**

A big sister? Ren never entertained the thought.

 **"Yeah. You alright with that?"**

 **She stood in silence, waiting for a response. What she got was arms around her neck and a whisper of, "Melanie Nee-chan."**

 **"...I don't know what that means, but I'll take that as a yes." Melanie into the light, and both she and Ren disappeared.**

Looked like his counterpart got attached quick. Well, he got a big sister in his pleasant afterlife. ' _All's well that ends well, I suppose._ ' He turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Remember what I told you?"

Ren grinned. "You thought I was the brother you never had." He felt another hand on his shoulder.

"Then, do you mind if take the older sister role?"

"Sure," he responded with his own half-joke to Pyrrha.

"I love you all." The three smiled at Nora and went into a group hug.

 **Ruby swung her scythe once more and the light vanished.**

 **"You got thirty seconds?" Ruby spun around to face a figure dressed like her.**

 **"Hey Mom."**

Gaps and sharp intakes of breath came from Yang, Qrow, Raven, Ozpin and Goodwitch, but the loudest one was Ruby, who turned around faster than them all.

"Mom!?"

There she stood. Summer Rose, dressed in all black with her own black cloak just like this world's Ruby.

"Mom!" Ruby ran to her mother with tears in her eyes. "It's me Mom!" She threw her arms out. "You're back!" She ran straight through her and tripped. "No! Mom!" She got back up and tried again.

 **"How was your recent batch?"**

"Mom, please!"

She tripped.

She tried again.

 **"Two whites, one black, one gray."**

"Mom, look at me! Don't you recognize me?"

She tripped.

She tried again.

"Mom!"

 **"I got myself four blacks."**

 **"A draw then."**

"Please Mom," Ruby sniffled. "Don't do this."

She tripped.

She tried again.

 **Summer nodded. "I'm betting one white and three grays for my next batch."**

She tripped.

"Mom..." She tried to grasp her leg. Her ankle.

Again.

 **"Two blacks, two grays."**

And again.

 **"Same punishment?" Summer extended her hand.**

And again.

 **"Same punishment." The two shook on it.**

And again.

 **Summer reached into her cloak. "Welp, back to work." She pulled out her first paper. "Gray! Alright!" She took off with a sprint.**

"No!" Ruby got back up, only to fall again. "Wait! Mom!" She watched her mother run off in the distance. "Please come back! Come back! Please!"

Summer Rose was no longer in sight.

"Mom!"

 **"Cheater," Ruby pouted before pulling out her own paper. "Gold? Who's getting reincarnated?"**

 **Ruby hummed in understanding. "Ah. Should've known." She walked away with a smirk and twirling her scythe. "Automatic win! See you later Mom!"**

The world changed back to the endless void. "Pre-recorded message: You have finished viewing this world. The next world shall start in one minute. End message."

Ruby shook her head furiously. "Nonono! No! Mom was... S-She was here," she whimpered, snot and tears running down her face. "Mom... why'd you have to leave again?" She felt arms wrap around her. "M-Mom?"

"That wasn't her Ruby," Yang whispered, a tear escaping her eye.

"Yang... Mom..."

"I know Rubes. I know."

A hand rubbed her head. "We miss her too."

"Unc-" Sniffle. "Mom..."

"Let it all out."

"...Mommy!"

Neo looked over to Torchwick, who turned away from Red and her family. Out of annoyance or respect, Neo didn't bother to figure out.

Salem and Cinder ignored the crying child.

Adam was mentally celebrating. Human suffering. What a great result that world gave.

JNPR and Sun watched sadly, with Penny being stopped by the them, being told this was to be a family matter.

Ironwood and Winter bowed their heads in respect.

Ozpin and Goodwitch did the same, though with a feeling of their own despair at the memory of Summer Rose.

The only sound left was the cry of a young girl being comforted by her sister and uncle, with her aunt, Raven Branwen, eyes closed and arms crossed, standing over her.

* * *

 **Rating's been changed to M.**


End file.
